Pune added to IPL match hosting venues

Mumbai: Pune and Chennai have been added to the list of host venues for this season’s Indian Premier League T20 cricket tournament, scheduled in April-May, after missing out on the distinction in 2014 due to different reasons.

“At the request of King’s XI Punjab, we have decided to allot two or three of their home games to Pune,” Cricket Board sources told reporters at the conclusion of the IPL’s Governing Council meeting here on Tuesday.

Last year Pune did not host any IPL game at the new stadium on its outskirts after the scrapping of the city’s franchise outfit Sahara Pune Warriors by the BCCI.

The GC decided that Chennai would also host IPL games after all matches of home franchise Chennai Super Kings were shifted to Ranchi last season due to a dispute with the local municipal corporation over a section of the stands in the refurbished M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk.

“Chennai would host IPL games. It doesn’t matter if some of the stands have to be kept empty of spectators,” the sources said.

Though they did not specifically say, it was understood that the stadium would play host to the home games of Chennai Super Kings.

The most successful IPL franchise’s future is uncertain in the wake of the Supreme Court-appointed Justice Lodha panel to decide on the quantum of punishment to be handed out to CSK after its team official Gurunath Meiyappan had been found guilty of betting in IPL.

The committee would also decide the quantum of punishment for another team – Rajasthan Royals – and its co-owner Raj Kundra, also found guilty of betting.

The IPL GC on Tuesday decided to allot all home games of RR to Ahmedabad as was the case in 2014 and not its earlier host city – Jaipur.

Cricket Club of India’s Brabourne Stadium, which hosted the Eliminator between CSK and Mumbai Indians last year, has been handpicked by the GC to host a few “league stage games”.

Meanwhile, the postponed IPL franchise workshop has been rescheduled to be held at Bengaluru on February 17, a day after the IPL player auction at the same city.