Debasis Sen, Kolkata
The dusk had just set in as an empty Eden Gardens presented a sombre look with the iconic venue losing its rights to host the IPL 2025 final. Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) President Snehasish Ganguly was visibly dejected as he left the association after a meeting of the coaching committees on Tuesday. Despite the best efforts of the state association, the Indian cricket board decided against staging any playoff matches in Kolkata due to early monsoon setting in the eastern parts of the country.
The BCCI on Tuesday officially announced Mullanpur and Ahmedabad as the two venues to stage the four Playoff matches with the new PCA stadium in New Chandigarh hosting the Qualifier 1 and Eliminator on May 29 and 30 respectively while the Qualifier 2 and final will be staged on June 1 and June 3 at the Narendra Modi stadium. Hyderabad and Kolkata were initially supposed to host the last four games before the one-week suspension of the tournament.
According to the media release sent by the BCCI, the official reason stated was, “The new venues for the Playoffs were decided by the IPL Governing Council keeping in mind the weather conditions and other parameters.”
It is the same reason match no 65 between Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) was relocated to the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow, due to unfavourable weather conditions in Bengaluru.
The writing was on the wall as Kolkata’s name was missing among the six shortlisted cities when BCCI announced the revised schedule for the remaining matches after the cash rich league resumed following a week’s suspension due to India-Pakistan tension.
It is learnt the host broadcasters insisted to host the matches in venues where there is very less chances of rain during the IPL Governing Council meeting held virtually on Tuesday. However, a section in CAB has reservations as far as Avishek Dalmiya’s role is concerned. According to a top official of the association who said on conditions of anonymity that Avishek, who is also a member of the IPL Governing Council could have been more proactive in the meeting. With the upcoming CAB elections, it clearly brings to the fore the politics between the two factions in the state association.
It is clear as broad daylight that the relation between Avishek and Snehasish is not good. There have been several instances in the past where both the current and former Presidents of the association have had a go at each other. It is still not clear yet whether Avishek will contest the upcoming CAB elections against Snehasish’s younger brother Sourav Ganguly.
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Sourav, who served as the President of the state unit from 2015-19 will be contesting the upcoming elections is what the grapevine says. And needless to say he is a heavyweight.
It goes without saying that Eden Gardens losing the hosting rights for IPL 2025 final will be a talking point leading up to the upcoming CAB elections with both factions blaming each other for the loss.