International Cricket Council chief executive Haroon Lorgat on Saturday apologised for the World Cup ticket fiasco that has left thousands of fans with no hope of seeing marquee matches.
The controversy over ticket distribution and availability, especially at Bangaluru, where India and England clash on Sunday, as well as the April 2 final in Mumbai, has caused a rift between the world body and local organisers.
"What is unfortunate is that too few go to the public as a general sale," said Mr Lorgat.
"No matter what sort of capacity we provide, the truth is that we won't have enough seats for the demand that we have on our hands."
Fans in Bangaluru, many of whom had queued overnight in the hope of securing one of 7,000 tickets for the India-England game, were baton-charged by police at Bangaluru's M. Chinnaswamy stadium on Thursday.
The choice of Mumbai for the final has been controversial as the Wankhede stadium only has a 33,000 capacity with 20,000 tickets going to clubs linked to the Mumbai Cricket Association and 8,500 to the ICC.
The remainder will go on sale to the general public.