Kings XI Punjab has requested the Board of Control of Cricket in India to reschedule at least two of their ‘home’ games at Mohali. The matter may be decided in the Indian Premier League Governing Council today (Friday).
The venues for the tie against the Kolkata Knight Riders on May 12 and the Royal Challengers Bangalore match on May 14 are likely to be moved out of Mohali. The Kings XI Punjab has a genuine concern as the Chandigarh airport will be closed for maintenance works and there will be no commercial operations between May 12 and May 31.
Amidst the hectic IPL schedule, the teams will find it difficult to travel to and from Chandigarh. Bringing teams to any other airport will involve at least 3-5 hours of travel by road.
The BCCI acting president CK Khanna has confirmed to the Times of India that the board has received a request from the Punjab IPL franchisee for rescheduling of the games.
“We have received a request from the Punjab Cricket Association and IPL’s governing council will surely look into it because this is a genuine problem,” TOI has quoted Khanna as saying.
TOI quoting sources has also reported that a couple of Punjab matches might be moved to Lucknow.
Kings XI Punjab has not been comfortable with Mohali as its home venue due to poor yields from ticket sales. Pressure for complimentary tickets has always been a major concern for the franchisee, which has also raised the issue with concerned authorities.
“Complimentary tickets are one big issue for us. This year, we are looking to address that differently. We are working on sorting it out. The matter has been raised with all concerned. The Punjab Cricket Association has assured us that will solve this problem. So, hopefully, this will be a much better year. We expect our fans to cheer us in big numbers,” the KXIP CEO Satish Menon had told insidesport.co. “If we increase the ticket price the response is not very high. So we have to stick to a certain price.”
KXIP in August last year had made a formal request with the BCCI for shifting their home venue from Mohali.
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