KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC):

MORE THAN 2,000 extra tickets for the Cricket World Cup (CWC) final on April 28 at Kensington Oval in Barbados have become available, the ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007 Inc. announced late on Wednesday.

A number of returns have been made from various contractual obligations to the event's commercial partners - sponsors, official travel and hospitality agents - and fans can now capitalise on access to more tickets from today.

"More than 2,200 of the most prized tickets for ICC Cricket World Cup will be up for grabs on Friday morning!" ICC CWC West Indies 2007 Inc. stated in a press release.

Extra tickets to the CWC final will be sold online and in CWC official ticket centres in the nine host venues - even if they have not previously bought any CWC tickets.

Available to public

As in the case of additional semi-final tickets, which were recently made available through a similar development, these final tickets are being made available to the general public through the same avenue.

"Once again, some of our sponsors have not exercised their full option on tickets for the final, and CWC has received returns for the final in various categories," said CWC commercial director Stephen Price.

"There was excessive demand for the final and we are sure that cricket fans will appreciatethis golden opportunity to get their hands on these much sought-after tickets for the biggest tournament match," he said.

The final tickets - 600 in category one; 1,600 in category two and a small number in category three - will go on sale simultaneously in ticket centres as well as online (www.cricketworldcup.com) at 9.30 (Ja time) this morning.

While persons who have not previously bought any CWC tickets will now be eligible to buy tickets for the final, there will still be a maximum limit of four per person.