Australia opener Chris Rogers admits he has learned a lesson from trying to sell hospitality packages for the Lord’s Ashes Test, but denies any wrongdoing and is determined to swiftly put the controversy behind him.
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Inside Edge Experience, run by Rogers and his former Middlesex colleague Tom Scollay, was reportedly offering “a unique and exclusive opportunity to attend the sold-out second Ashes Test”.
The advertising for the package disappeared from the company’s LinkedIn page yesterday morning, while its Facebook page could not be found and its website brought up a page reading “Inside Edge Experience is currently under development”.
The tickets prices reportedly started at £1,756 (Dh10,111) apiece while the most expensive, which included hotel accommodation in London, cost £2,910 (Dh16,782).
Rogers half pleading ignorance but flogging off free tickets bad look … Imagine our reaction if Stuart Broad did it for Boxing Day Test.
— Mark Stevens (@Stevo7AFL) June 24, 2015
As a former captain of Middlesex, who play at Lord’s, Rogers received 10 tickets for the showpiece match, with officials believing they would go to family and friends. But Rogers and Scollay, then tried to re-sell the tickets as part of a hospitality package through their company.
Marylebone Cricket Club, the owners of Lord’s, are opposed to the re-sale of tickets and have a limited number of approved hospitality package operators, a list that doesn’t include Inside Edge Experience.
“We understand that no tickets have changed hands and we were assured that it was simply a case of naivety and over-enthusiasm,” a MCC spokesman told ESPNcricinfo.
Middlesex have withdrawn the tickets, while Cricket Australia said they were “satisfied all concerned set out with good intentions” over the “misunderstanding in the way they went about getting hold of the tickets.”
Rogers maintains he acted in good faith and could go into the Ashes with a clear conscience.
Speaking ahead of Australia’s first tour match against Kent beginning Thursday, he said: “I have probably learned my lesson, but there was no intent to deceive or anything like that. I look back at it a bit disappointed about how things turned out, but thought I was open and honest with everything I did.”
Rogers, 37, continued: “Naive is the word which has come up a bit, but it is funny because everybody I spoke to and told them what I was doing, no-one suggested I do it any other way, so I did not realise I was supposed to go through the ECB.
“I went through Middlesex, who are the people I know. I did not think I was doing anything wrong.”
Rogers, who is set to retire after this Ashes series, intends to quickly move on.
“It has been a bit of a distraction, but the cricket starts tomorrow and I am pretty good at just getting on with it, so I am not too worried.”
