Cricket World Cup: Forged passes cause chaos

THE AUTHORITIES at Lord's were being tested to the full as fans converged on St John's Wood bearing forged tournament passes, issued only to the media and tournament and team officials.

A number of the passes were confiscated on the gate. One Pakistani businessman who was turned out of the ground after being informed that he had paid pounds 300 for a worthless bit of coloured paper in the wrong laminate burst into tears. Others were just angry that they had been conned.

The passes can be traced back to their source thanks to a series of special codes and it is believed a number originated in Manchester. Rushman's, the ticket agency, are to pass their findings on to the police at a debriefing scheduled for later this week.

The World Cup has been advertised as a carnival of cricket, but yesterday it was the touts and louts who were celebrating a carnival of cash. Genuine tickets were changing hands for sums of up to pounds 1,600 for a pair. An MCC steward on one gate was offered pounds 5,000 to let in a ticketless fan.

The ground was under seige from early morning and two enterprising Pakistani fans were discovered in toilets in the ground late on Friday, having planned to lie doggo for 48 hours.

Remarkably, the police had not closed the surrounding roads so there was traffic chaos. The police view was that a couple of lines of (slow) moving vehicles was a useful barricade as they tried to maintain some form of order outside the Grace Gates.

And while Australia and Pakistan fans with tickets shuffled slowly through the turnstiles at Lord's to join the final chapter of the carnival, the ticketless were kept on the other side of St John's Wood Road, forced into the role of unwilling onlookers. Some of the more enterprising among them pressed the buzzers at the entrance to two of the blocks of flats which overlook the ground, and once a resident had opened the electronically controlled door they rushed up to the roof for a grandstand view at no cost.

The police attempted to get them down but as one officer pointed out, they did not have the manpower. "This is what happens when you try to run the police like a business and cut 3.5 per cent off the budget every year," he said.

They did remove a handful of supporters who made their to the top of a building under construction and they were also keeping a wary eye on the unattended tower cranes in the background.

The only sour note was an unconfirmed report of a tout being beaten up for his tickets, proving that buying and selling can be a risky business.