FALMOUTH, Trelawny – Spokesperson for the local organisers of Cricket World Cup 2007, Pauline Nelson, has promised to investigate claims that hundreds of tickets for the tournament’s warm-up matches were last week distributed to People’s National Party (PNP) supporters.

“I’m not aware of it, but I’ll check into it,” Nelson told the Sunday Observer. Nelson’s promise came yesterday against the background of calls by the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) caretaker for North Trelawny, Dennis Meadows, for a probe into what he described as an apparent campaign effort by the PNP.

“…. this type of thing demands some level of investigation by the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of CWC 2007, as to how these volumes of tickets were handed out to PNP supporters,” the MP hopeful said.

Meadows alleged that more than 500 tickets allowing holders admission to the four ICC Cricket World Cup warm-up matches at the Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium were distributed during the course of the week from the PNP constituency office in Falmouth.

“When you look at those who were getting the tickets and those who were distributing them: they are all PNP activists, some of whom were selling them on the streets for between $500 and $1,000,” Meadows further alleged.

The price of tickets for the four warm-up games played at the stadium last week ranged from US$15 to US$40.

The PNP’s member of parliament for North Trelawny, Dr Patrick Harris, refused to comment on the issue, saying: “I don’t want to get into the ‘passa passa’ argument about tickets. I am looking at the bigger picture in the constituency. Simple minds discuss tickets, but if you want to know about ticket distributions ask the people who were distributing them,” he told the Sunday Observer.