Cricket World Cup: Refunds over delays getting into Trent Bridge Published duration 31 May 2019

image caption Some fans said they queued for more than two hours to collect tickets

Cricket fans who missed the start of the World Cup match between Pakistan and West Indies due to delays at Trent Bridge are to receive refunds.

Some spectators complained they were forced to wait more than two hours to collect paper tickets before the game.

The International Cricket Council said due to a problem delivering tickets, there had been a high volume of people collecting them at the ground.

It apologised and said refunds would be automatically issued to those affected.

image copyright Getty Images image caption Pakistan lost to West Indies despite strong support

BBC producer Emb Hashmi, who was attending the game, said it was "absolutely frustrating" to see queues that seemed to go on for "miles and miles" as fans from all over the world missed the start of the game they had paid to see.

Bilal Zafar said he was queuing for more than an hour and jokingly compared the scenes to the Fyre Festival , the US music event that famously descended into chaos in 2017.

Steve Elworthy, managing director of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup, said: "I sincerely apologise to every single fan who was affected by the queues today.

"We have delivered over 700,000 tickets to more than 120 countries, but not all tickets were successfully delivered and as such we have seen a higher volume collecting at the venue.

"It is only right that we refund these fans by way of apology. The refund will happen automatically so the fans do not need to do anything."

image copyright Bilal Zafar image caption Cricket fans had travelled from across the world to see the game

The ICC said it was working with Ticketmaster to resolve outstanding issues and had put measures in place to avoid a similar situation at future World Cup games.

It added data from ticket scanners would be used to determine which spectators missed the start of play.

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