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Amid the ongoing 19th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), a massive ticketing scam has grabbed headlines involving the Delhi Capitals vs Mumbai Indians IPL match. Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) director Anand Verma has levelled serious accusations over ticketing at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. He claimed that multiple premium category tickets, which were priced at INR 1 lakh, were sanctioned to some unauthorised people during the match. He also claimed that people with original tickets are being blocked from entering the stadium despite having valid tickets.

This ticketing scam has already harmed the reputation of the DDCA, but also raised some serious debates around the safety of the ongoing IPL matches at the venue. Anand Verma has submitted a report to the Police Commissioner stating that he and his high-profile guests were stopped from accessing the hospitality area of the stadium despite carrying proper tickets for the Delhi Capitals vs Mumbai Indians IPL match on April 4.

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According to Verma, the tickets that were issued to him in his name had already been used by some unauthorized persons to get into the same hospitality section.

However, DDCA secretary Ashok Sharma has denied these allegations and has claimed that these errors happened due to a technical problem.

As quoted by News18, Sharma said: 

“When the Complainant and his guests arrived at the designated entry gate of the stadium, they were illegally stopped and denied entry by the security personnel manning the entry point."

He further added:

“Upon enquiry, the Complainant was shocked to learn that the two complimentary physical tickets in his possession had already been scanned and used for entry by some unknown and unauthorised persons.”

Anand Verma had also reached out to Manan Gupta, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of DDCA, for information about the unlawful use of the tickets. 

Anand Verma said: 

“Mr Manan Gupta, instead of taking immediate action, provided the complainant with the contact details of one Mr Bhushan, who is stated to be the DDCA in-charge for handling all tickets…but no fruitful or satisfactory explanation was provided by him regarding the prior scanning and use of the tickets.”

Responding to the allegations, Ashok Sharma stated that the bar codes on the tickets were not properly picked up by the scanning devices, which caused a technical error.

As quoted by News18, Sharma said: 

“Delhi Capitals have communicated to us that it was a technical issue. Sometimes the scanner fails to read the barcode.”

This incident happened during the IPL 2026 match between the Delhi Capitals and the Mumbai Indians. The match was won by the home team by 6 wickets while chasing a modest target of 163 runs.