IPL 2016: Rising Pune Supergiants want Vizag as alternate home venue, Mumbai Indians still undecided

The ACA-VDCA stadium in Visakhapatnam is likely to host the ‘home’ matches of RPS after April 30

Rising Pune Supergiants, one of the three IPL sides affected by the Bombay High Court ruling that all matches slated to be held in Maharashtra after April 30 needed to be shifted out of the drought-affected state, has made known to the BCCI their preference to hold their home matches after the above said date at Vizag, IBN Live reports. 

IPL Chairman and senior BCCI official Rajiv Shukla had revealed on Thursday that all parties involved had decided to follow the court’s orders and that the search for alternate venues had already begun. While various reports suggested that Raipur and Kanpur were the cities in the forefront as likely alternate venues, the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Vishakapattanam, which had hosted a few IPL matches of the Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise in the previous editions of the IPL, seems to have won the race. 

Mumbai Indians have meanwhile asked the BCCI a couple of days more to make a decision on which city they would like to choose as its alternate home venue and will convey the same on Sunday, April 17th. According to India Today sources, the Mumbai-based franchise is likely to opt for Jaipur. 

As for Kings XI Punjab, who had three of its home matches scheduled at Nagpur, it was already reported that two of those matches will be held in Mohali and Dharamsala. 

The court ruling had also forced the BCCI to look for alternate venues to hold two of the playoff matches, slotted for the Maharashtra Cricket Association stadium in Gahunge as per the original schedule as well as the final on May 29, which was to be held at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.

While the Cricket Association of Bengal had shared publically its willingness to hold the final should the BCCI decide so, the trophy decider, as well as Qualifier 1, is likely to be held at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, while the second qualifier is likely to go to the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

“We have asked for the first Qualifier and the final match to be played in Bengaluru and the other match, that is Qualifier 2, to be played in Kolkata. These are the proposals which will go to the Governing Council,” Rajiv Shukla said. 

The Governing Council of the IPL will meet and give the final go-ahead for the proposed changes once the Mumbai Indians franchise make known their preference.