The BCCI have shortlisted certain alternate venues for Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants where they have to play their home matches of IPL 2016 after April 30. The two Indian Premier League franchisees need to decide over Visakhapatnam, Raipur, Jaipur and Kanpur now.
While the Pune franchisee have preferred to see their remaining matches of the competition get hosted at Visakhapatnam, Mumbai Indians are yet to make a decision. The defending IPL champions are however expected to give an answer on April 17.
Top officials from the Indian cricket board met at the national capital on Friday afternoon to discuss the backup plan going ahead. Representatives from IPL's Maharahstra-based franchises Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants were also present during the meeting.
"We'll put the proposal of Pune team before Governing Council," said IPL Chairman Rajiv Shukla to ANI following the meeting.
Shukla also mentioned that they have plans to host the IPL 2016 final at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru along with the first quarterfinal match. He added that the BCCI also suggested shifting the second quarterfinal match and the eliminator match of the competition to the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
"We'll propose before [IPL] Governing Council that Final & Q1 be shifted to Bengaluru, Q2 and eliminator to Kolkata," he added.
It all started when a PIL was filed by a NGO named Loksatta Movement, based in Mahrashtra, at the Bombay High Court asking the Indian Premier League matches to be shifted at the face of one of the worst drought situations Maharashtra have been facing. Surendra Srivastava, the head of the NGO, was the man behind the petition.
The court gave a go-ahead to the IPL 2016 opener between Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai as they mentioned that the PIL filed was too late for rescheduling the match. On Wednesday, following another hearing with the BCCI, the Bombay High Court gave the ruling to shift the matches out from May.
The BCCI said that they were willing to use only treated sewage water to maintain the cricket pitches during the matches. Also, even the Pune and the Mumbai franchisee of the IPL committed that they will be providing Rs 5 crore each to the Maharashtra Chief Minister's drought-relief fund. But, the judicial body stuck to their ruling.
