A day after cricketing fans queued up to buy tickets for the UAE leg of the seventh edition of popular Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket championship, and with tickets fast selling out, online classifieds websites were abuzz with marked-up offers.

Barry Judge, General Manager at dubizzle, UAE, told Emirates24|7 that they will take action against illegal sale of tickets if the organisers of the event approaches them.

"With regard to reselling events tickets, if it is against the terms and conditions of the event organiser to resell or a certain event organiser decides not to allow resale on our website, then we will gladly collaborate with them on that; as long as they officially inform us beforehand – we have done it before on several occasions and are happy to do it again," he said.

 "dubizzle is a platform that facilitates and encourages fair trade. People have the right to trade freely, if they wish to sell something that they purchased because they can no longer use it, it is a choice."

The double-header on April 19 between Royal Challengers vs Mumbai Indians, and Kolkata Knight riders vs Delhi DareDevils appears to be a favourite among online sellers, who are quoting inflated rates for the tickets.

Emirates 24|7 had reported how tickets for this day are already close to a sell-out.

“4 Purple tickets Dh375 each available for 19th April Royal Challengers vs Mumbai Indians & Kolkata Knight riders vs Delhi DareDevils,” an advert on Dubizzle on Tuesday (April 8).

The purple tickets officially cost only Dh80.

Another offer reads, “Have tickets available for 19th April Double Header between 1) RCB VS MI 2) KKR VS DD for Dh175 each (orange/green stand). Have a few left. Kindly contact asap if interested.”

The orange and green tickets actually cost only Dh50.

The platinum (Dh250), red premium west (Dh150) and red premium east (Dh150) for the same day are marked sold-out on the official online purchasing website – ticketmaster.ae.

The situation is the same for the other double-header, which is on April 25, when Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Daredevils play ahead of Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians.

The only tickets available are for the purple, orange and green.

Another advert reads, “I am selling 2 tickets for 700! These tickets are worth 300 each but only selling for 700 for two together! In Abu Dhabhi stadium for double header CSK vsPUNJAB. And SRH. Vs RR.”

The tickets to this are still available on the official ticketing website.

A resident in Abu Dhabi, who braved the crowds to buy her tickets, recalled her adventure.

“My brother skipped a few hours of work and escorted me to buy the tickets. But by the time we got there, there was a long queue,” recalled Chitra Vinod.

After half-an-hour, they got four tickets for the Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders match on April 16. Her brother supports Mumbai Knight Riders, while she supports Kolkata Knight Riders.

While Chitra was lucky, she did see two of her brother’s friends walk away empty-handed despite clocking the hours in line. In fact, her sister-in-law in Dubai had to wait for 2 hours before purchasing their tickets.

“There was a lot of confusion and not enough information to streamline the booking process. We wasted a lot of time. On retrospect, we should have just booked online,” she added.

“The Dh80 tickets for the first day were sold out within minutes of the sale.”

She complained that “people selling tickets have no clue about the tickets or cricket. Each match dates tickets are open for some time and then they appear unavailable... even at Lulu.”

The IPL will be held in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah between April 16 and April 30, with eight teams competing in 20 games.

In Abu Dhabi, ticket prices start at Dh20 for a single match and Dh30 for a double-header. In Dubai, a ticket is Dh30 for a single match, and Dh50 for double-headers. In Sharjah, tickets are Dh30 for a single match, and Dh40 for the double-headers.

Tickets are available online at iplt20.com and ticketmaster.ae.

IPL 7 UAE tickets on sale at Dubai Sports City ... Click here for details

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