Jaipur misses out as IPL venue - Is Gavaskar toeing the Srinivasan line?

Did RCA vs BCCI, and more specifically, Lalit Modi vs Srinivasan battle force Jaipur to miss out as an IPL venue?

The announcement of the schedule of the second leg of the Indian Premier League 2014 was bittersweet. While franchise owners breathed a sigh of relief with the tournament returning to India, the loyal fans of the Rajasthan Royals were utterly disappointed with the fact that not a single home game of the franchise would be played in Jaipur.

Jaipur’s Sawai Man Singh Stadium has played host to the Royals ever since the first edition took place in 2008, and has been a major reason why the team has consistently been able to capitalize on the home advantage. This year, however, all the home games of the Royals will be played in Ahmedabad.

According to ESPNCricinfo’s report, Jaipur missed out on the games due to the state association’s inability to get a No-Objection Certification (NOC) from the state government. However, it’s important to note, that all of this has happened in the backdrop of the undeclared results of the Rajasthan Cricket Association election, and a possible win for former IPL czar, Lalit Modi.

Also, quite recently, RCA’s representative in the BCCI, Mehmood Abdi filed an FIR alleging fixing in an IPL match involving Chennai. Abdi has gone on to publicly state that N. Srinivasan is not eligible to represent BCCI at the International Cricket Council, as he is associated with India Cements and the Supreme Court directive bars any India Cements associate to be involved with the functioning of India’s cricket board.

Considering that there exists so much friction, it would not be hard to infer that denying the RCA a chance to host games, is a move aimed at crippling the organisation financially, as a lot of revenue is earned by the state association by virtue of hosting the IPL games. This is in sync with BCCI’s usual, toe-the-line policy that it follows for erring state associations. During the peak of the cold war between Jagmohan Dalmiya and the Sharad Pawar faction, the Eden Gardens was deprived of any significant cricketing action for more than a year.

Although shifting to Ahmedabad remains a commercially win-win situation for the Board and the franchise – what is surprising though, is the fact that a Supreme Court appointed interim President and a former player of unquestionable repute is now seen taking actions that is quite symptomatic of his predecessor.

Why was there such a hurry to get an NOC, considering that IPL begins in India not before May? Why will a state government that will be done with elections by April 24th refuse to give clearances for May? Especially considering that the state treasuries stand to gain a lot by taxing the IPL games in the city.

There are a few questions that Mr. Gavaskar’s IPL team needs to answer, simply stating that there were “not enough assurances”, isn’t the transparency that cricket fans have been waiting for.

FULL IPL SCHEDULE