Venkatesh Prasad, the Karnataka State Cricket Association president, on Wednesday noted that the onus is on Royal Challengers Bengaluru to decide whether they want to continue playing their IPL matches at M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
The Chinnaswamy has been granted conditional permission by the state government to host IPL and international matches. The iconic stadium hasn’t hosted any match since 11 fans lost their lives in stampede during RCB’s victory celebrations on June 4.
“We have received the conditional permission from government, and we are confident of getting an unconditional permission sooner rather than later, and after doing all this, I sincerely hope that Royal Challengers Bengaluru will play all their seven home matches at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium,” Prasad said in a select media gathering.
“Now the ball is in RCB’s court. I also hope that RCB gets involved and engages with the government for smooth conduct of the matches. So far, it has been only one sided. We are doing this for cricket. Whether it is IPL or international matches. We are doing this for cricket,” he added.
Prasad also observed that the Bengaluru fans have been loyal towards the franchise. And it has some obligation towards their supporters by playing at the stadium. “From here onwards, the RCB has to take things forward. It is the responsibility of the RCB to take this dialogue forward. It is their responsibility to come back here and play and not to take the game away from Bengaluru.
“They have grown to this level only because of having played in Bengaluru and because of the Bengaluru crowd. So, I have asked them to come and play here,” he said.
Prasad also shared his views on how the KSCA is ensuring all the safety measures are in place. “As far as fire safety is concerned, almost everything is done. There are a couple of things that need to be done, which will take some time. That has to happen in a phased manner, which even they know.
“They have asked for 50,000 litres underground capacity, but they are okay with an overhead tank as well. We have already done 30,000, we need to get 20,000 more. From the BESCOM, everything is cleared. We can’t have just one agency to do all the gates (renovation work), we have multiple agencies to do it.”
Meanwhile, in a separate statement, RCB welcomed the move to restart cricket matches at the Chinnaswamy. However, they noted that they would gauge the kind of safety measures that have been undertaken by the board before arriving at their decision.
“While our desire is always to play at our home ground, in front of our ardent fans, we want to be thorough in our commitment to further understand the conditions applicable to host matches here and the measures taken to ensure fan safety protocols are met. Our goal is to see how best all stakeholders involved can work together.”
