Higher seating capacity and an ICC board meeting around the IPL final were two of the reasons for moving the May 31 summit match from Bengaluru to Ahmedabad, IPL chairman Arun Singh Dhumal told PTI.
The BCCI handed the final to Ahmedabad, which also hosted the title match last year, on Wednesday. Normally, the IPL winners get to host the final the following season.
Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad can hold more than 130,000 people, but Chinnaswamy Stadium, the scene of the horrifying stampede that claimed 11 lives during the RCB win celebrations, can only hold about 40,000.
The Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) conveyed their dissatisfaction at not being granted the chance to host the championship match.
Dhumal gave an explanation of the BCCI’s decision to change the venue while talking to PTI.
“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.
“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 attracting negative attention, 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.”
