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IPL Chairman Arun Dhumal on Thursday said it became “untenable” to have the league`s final in Bengaluru due to high demand for complimentary tickets from the state government at the relatively low-capacity venue. Ahmedabad`s Narendra Modi Stadium, which can accommodate 1.30 lakh spectators, will host the final of the glitzy T20 event on May 31.
As per convention, Bengaluru was the originally designated host as Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) are the defending champions. However, the BCCI on Wednesday said “owing to certain requirements from the local association and authorities that were beyond the scope of BCCI`s established guidelines and protocols, the venue has been shifted and reassigned.” Speaking to PTI, Dhumal elaborated on the issues that BCCI faced.
The Karnataka government has a quota of three complimentary IPL tickets each for the state`s MLAs, MLCs and MPs, which would have been difficult to implement at a venue which cannot accommodate more than 40,000. “See ideally it should have been Bengaluru. We checked up with KSCA. Because what happened last year (stampede), they had some challenges. State government needs to give free tickets to legislators and KSCA has some other commitments for their members,” he said.
“Stadium capacity is also not that high. Very few tickets were available there for league games as well. Since IPL final attracts people from around the world, we need to have a larger inventory (of tickets) available for fans. We would have the ICC board meeting around that time too, a lot of members are coming for that. “Considering all, definitely we all thought a larger venue would be more appropriate. Keeping the convenience of fans as well as international guests coming in for ICC board meetings, we decided on Ahmedabad,” said Dhumal.
Asked about Ahmedabad regularly hosting the final which has triggered accusations that the venue is being favoured over other cities, Dhumal said: “No, ideally the winning team gets the final but given the issues we touched upon, it becomes untenable to have it in Bengaluru. Let`s say if CSK won last season we would surely do it in Chennai.” The Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) had expressed its disappointment at not being given the opportunity to stage the final, insisting that it had done what was required to be ready.
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