Tickets for next year’s cricket World Cup on internet auction sites or from third-party outlets will not be honoured, organisers warned today (AEST).

Only tickets sold through authorised travel agents and the International Cricket Council’s public ticketing program will be valid for entry at the tournament, which is being held for the first time in the Caribbean, World Cup commercial manager Stephen Price said in Jamaica.

“We’re telling people before they make a bid on eBay that those tickets won’t be valid,” he said.

“We’re trying to protect people from price gouging.”

Price said World Cup officials are working with eBay and internet monitoring services to identify who is selling tickets.

Tickets posted yesterday on eBay are drawing bids of more than twice their face value.

A package of four tickets for matches in Barbados with a face value of $US900 ($1200) had attracted bids higher than $US1900 ($2540) with a day left in the auction.

Price said organisers started noticing unauthorised ticket sales on eBay and sites, such as worldticketshop.com, last month.

Posted: 09|29|06 at 8:03 am. Filed under: Auction News.