Shifting Maharashtra matches huge logistical nightmare

The Bombay High Court has just given the Indian Premier League (IPL) organizers a problem of immense proportions to deal with.

In less than 17 days, the IPL governing council and IMG, which handles tournament operations, along with the three affected franchises - Mumbai Indians Rising Pune Supergiants and Kings XI Punjab - and the stakeholders, will have to move bag and baggage from Mumbai, Pune and Mohali to other ­ yet unidentified ­ venues to host a total of 10 games.

Keeping the disastrous water-crisis in Maharashtra in mind, the court has asked the franchises to shift all matches scheduled in the month of May out of the state, THE TIMES OF INDIA reports.

In May, Mumbai Indians have three matches scheduled at the Wankhede, Rising Pune Supergiants have four at the Maharashtra Cricket Association stadium in Pune and Kings XI Punjab have three at Nagpur’s Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA).

Sources told TOI that ‘It is highly unlikely that the BCCI will appeal in a higher court against the Bombay High Court order.’

On Wednesday evening, franchises were yet to receive a copy of the court order ruling out matches in Maharashtra in May even as franchise officials got into an emergency huddle to figure out the road ahead.

Dharamshala, Raipur and Visakhapatnam are the three venues readily available.

Gujarat is also suffering from a water crisis and so is Jharkhand, an official in the know of developments said, thus ruling out Ranchi as a possible venue.

For Rising Pune Supergiants, Chennai could’ve been the best available option given MS Dhoni’s massive fan-base that exists in the city.

However, with the state heading to polls on May 16 and the counting scheduled for May 19, the option may not be possible given that Supergiants have a game scheduled for May 17.

‘That is, unless the schedule can be tweaked. It`s too early to say what the possibilities are,’ the official added.

Meanwhile, Supergiants have another worry to take care of.

Pune is scheduled to host matches on April 29 and May 1.

Since the court has asked all matches scheduled in May to be shifted, the BCCI will have to take a call on shifting the April 29 game too or request the court to allow the May 1 match to be played in Pune.

Sources pointed out that Rising Supergiants owner Sanjiv Goenka is keen on hosting his home matches in Kolkata if the IPL governing council agrees.

Kolkata is home to Goenka’s football team ­ Atletico de Kolkata ­ in which IPL GC member Sourav Ganguly is also a stakeholder.

However, given that Kolkata is already home to the Knight Riders, the BCCI may want to look at other venues.

‘Daredevils are playing two matches in Raipur.One of the best options is to ask them (Daredevils) to shift those two matches back to Delhi so that Raipur can be used as one of the venues,’ another official pointed out. G Gangaraju, Andhra Cricket Association president, has already come forward saying ‘Visakhapatnam is ready to host the matches.’

Given the logistics involved, it’ll have to be the call of IMG, which takes care of all operations. ‘Shifting the production team and equipment in such a short is also another challenge,’ the official said.