Bombay HC allows IPL to go ahead with May 1 match in Pune

NEW DELHI: The Bombay High Court has allowed BCCI to hold the IPL match between Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants on May 1 in Pune, terming it an exception. It had earlier asked BCCI to shift out all matches to be played in Maharashtra after April 30 due to drought like situation in many parts of the state.

The court was hearing an application that was filed by Ratnakar Shetty, who is BCCI’s general managers for games development.

In the application, BCCI had asked the match on May 1 to be allowed as it would be very difficult to make arrangement for the match in one day. This is because Pune has a match against Gujarat Lions in Pune on April 29 and it would be practically impossible for Pune to shift the May match to another venue at such short notice.

In the meanwhile, the Maharashtra Cricket Association and Mumbai Cricket Association have decided to move Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court order asking BCCI to shift all matches out of the state because it feels that moving of the matches will mean a loss for the two franchises — Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants.

Last week, after the IPL governing council gave the teams four venue options — Kanpur, Raipur, Visakhapatnam and Jaipur — Rising Pune Supergiants chose Visakhapatnam, while Mumbai Indians picked Jaipur as their new home gorunds. The third affected team Kings XI Punjab, which had three matches in Nagpur, had already taken the decision to move its matches to Dharamshala.

A BCCI team will visit the stadium in Jaipur later this week and since the Rajasthan Cricket Association was suspended by the BCCI earlier, the Rajasthan government’s sports council will be the host association for the matches, said the official.