Mumbai: The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) finds itself in a catch-22 situation as it may have to allow Kolkata Knight Riders’ co-owner Shah Rukh Khan at Wankhede stadium if it wants to host the IPL final on June 1. One of the conditions put forth by Indian Premier League Chairman Ranjib Biswal to MCA, one was to allow entry to all franchise owners and officials for hosting the finals.
The Bollywood superstar was banned for five years from entering MCA premises, including the Wankhede Stadium, by the Association’s managing committee, headed by the late Vilasrao Deshmukh, on May 18, 2012 after he was involved in a skirmish with security staff and officials of the cricket body after his team’s victory over Mumbai Indians two nights earlier. Biswal had on Tuesday replied to protest letter it received from the MCA attaching a list of do’s and dont’s, which have been clearly defined in the letter.
Some of the other conditions put out by the IPL were to allot 85 per cent parking slots to IPL, no ambush marketing at the stadium, no bursting of fire crackers post 10 pm, limited number of accreditations to MCA members. The MCA will have a managing committee meeting on Thursday evening to discuss these conditions. On Tuesday, the IPL Governing Council deferred its decision over the protest letter it received from the MCA against the shifting of the cash-rich league’s final from Wankhede to M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Stung by the Governing Council’s decision to shift the final assigning any specific reasons, MCA president Sharad Pawar had shot off a protest letter to the Board. Pawar had shot off the letter to the IPL Governing Council and all BCCI members, demanding a real reason behind shifting the T20 extravaganza’s grand finale to Bangalore from its original venue.
“Considering that 20 matches of the ongoing season were played overseas, the GC took a decision to try and take the play-offs to as many stadia as possible. Several venues had expressed their interest in hosting the play-offs,” BCCI had said while announcing the revised knock-out schedule.
