Visakhapatnam will stay as the joint venue for the home matches of IPL 2016 for Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants following May 1, confirmed IPL Chairman Rajeev Shukla on Friday. The defending Indian Premier League champions had earlier opted for Jaipur, but yet another PIL was filed against hosting matches in Rajasthan on the face of the water crisis all over India.
Shukla also confirmed after the IPL governing council meeting that the Qualifier 2 and the Eliminator match of IPL 2016, scheduled for Kolkata, will now be shifted to the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi.
Meanwhile, Kings XI Punjab are now not willing to play their three home games of IPL 2016 in Dharamsala as they have not received any response from the Himachal Pradesh state government, Press Trust of India reported on Friday. KXIP have, therefore, decided to play those three games in Mohali.
The matches were originally scheduled to be played in Nagpur, but according to a Bombay High Court order, the IPL 2016 matches scheduled for Maharashtra had to be shifted out after April 30 on the face of one of the worst drought situations the Indian state has been facing.
"They [KXIP] wanted Dharamsala to be their venue for the next three matches. On behalf of HPCA [Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association], we wrote a letter to the CM of Himachal on April 21, asking for his written consent," said Sanjay Sharma, HPCA public relations officer. "But no reply came from the government till date."
Sharma also revealed that the franchisee have written a letter to IPL Chairman Rajeev Shukla stating that they wanted their home games to be played in Mohali, which has been their home ground since the start of the Indian Premier League 2016 campaign.
"Yesterday Kings XI Punjab team owners called up Rajeev Shukla that they want their three matches to play in Mohali and not Dharamsala," Sharma mentioned, also adding that the franchisee were awaiting a reply from the Himachal Pradesh government for the last nine days, but they didn't get any.
