On Monday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the venue for the finale of the ongoing season of the IPL. Which has now been shifted from Chennai to Hyderabad after the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) failed to get the necessary permission from the government to open the three closed stands.

While the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) still have a chance to play Qualifier 1 in Chennai itself if they finish among the top two teams in the league but the Eliminator (May 8) and Qualifier 2 (May 10) has been shifted to Visakhapatnam.

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Describing the same, Committee of Administrators (CoA) chief Vinod Rai said, “We had to shift the matches from Chennai to Hyderabad after TNCA intimated us that they have not procured the requisite permission to open the three stands I, J and K. Since the gate sales of the knock-out matches is BCCI’s prerogative, we had to take a call. We would be having two knock-out matches in Vizag.”

The three stands comprise of as many as 2,000 tickets and BCCI would have lost out on a few crores of the gate money. The stands have remained closed since 2012 barring one international match between India and Pakistan when an exception was made.

When asked if all the knock-out matches’ ticket sales are BCCI’s exemption, why was Qualifier 1 allotted to Chennai, Rai reasoned, “CSK, by virtue of being defending champions, were allotted the Qualifier 1 and final. Now if they finish in the top two, you cannot take away all the games. They deserve to get at least one of the knock-out games.”

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Hyderabad only got the final and not the Eliminator or Qualifier because of the fact that during that time, the general elections will be going on in Cybercity on May 6, 8 and 10. The first three-team mini women’s IPL will be held from May 6-10 in Jaipur with a new team Velocity being added to the existing Trailblazers and Supernovas.