A company in which Australia opener Chris Rogers is a partner has been banned from selling tickets for next month's Ashes Test at Lord's at up to £2,910 (R2,91,000) apiece ESPNcricinfo website and Daily Telegraph reported yesterday
Chris Rogers
London: A company in which Australia opener Chris Rogers is a partner has been banned from selling tickets for next month's Ashes Test at Lord's at up to £2,910 (R2,91,000) apiece ESPNcricinfo website and Daily Telegraph reported yesterday.
Chris Rogers
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As a former captain of Middlesex, who play at Lord's, Rogers received 10 tickets for the showpiece match, with officials believing they would go to family and friends.
Cashing in
However, Rogers and business partner Tom Scollay, a former Middlesex colleague, then tried to re-sell the tickets as part of a hospitality package offered by their company, Inside Edge Experience. Prices started at £1,756, (Rs 1,75,600) while the most expensive, which included hotel accommodation in London, cost £2,910 (R2,91,000).
However, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the owners of Lord's, are opposed to the re-sale of tickets and have a limited number of approved hospitality package operators, a list that doesn't include Inside Edge Experience.
"We are vehemently opposed to the secondary ticket market," a MCC spokesman told ESPNcricinfo. "In this case, we understand that no tickets have changed hands and we were assured that it was simply a case of naivety and over-enthusiasm."
Meanwhile Middlesex chief executive Vinny Codrington said Rogers and his business partner had been involved in a "misunderstanding".
PA Sport adds: Speaking at the Spitfire Ground in Kent ahead of Thursday's tour match, he said: "I went about it what I thought was the right way, it turned out it probably wasn't. I have probably learned my lesson, but there was no intent to deceive or anything like that. I look back at it a bit disappointed about how things turned out, but thought I was open and honest with everything I did."
Rogers continued: "(Naive) is the word which has come up a bit, but it is funny because everybody I spoke to and told them what I was doing, no-one suggested I do it any other way.
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