Abhay Apte, the President of Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA), has said the state association is ready to host the home games of Chennai Super Kings.
Though, he also said it’s regrettable that Chennai had to lose out on hosting home games of Chennai Super Kings,
“It is unfortunate that Chennai is losing out on home games. But Pune has many advantages. It has good revenue, and most of the important CSK players played for Pune, so they have the comfort and connect,” he told Sportstar.
“We will have to look at tax, revenue, permissions, police etc. It is a big challenge, but having hosted IPL before, we have a set template and the experience. Whatever time government requires to push the applications, that we will have to wait,” he added.
The next six home games of CSK will be played in MCA Stadium. It was the home of former IPL franchise, Rising Pune Supergiant. Since the franchise is not a part of the IPL now, it does not hold the rights of any IPL game.
However, the stadium will still host Eliminator and second Qualifier by virtue of Rising Pune Supergiant ending last year’s IPL as runner-up. As per the rule, the home ground of runner-up team hosts Eliminator and second Qualifier. The MCA stadium, now, is all set to many more games.
Chennai Super Kings play their next home game on April 20 against Rajasthan Royals. It has been learnt that MS Dhoni is the reason behind Pune being alloted CSK’s home games. He played for Rising Pune Supergiant for two years (2016 and 2017) and seemed to be impressed by the stadium.
Pune will host CSK’s home games on April 20, 28, 30 and May 5, 13 and 20.
Meanwhile, CSK had dealt another blow, as Suresh Raina has been ruled out of next two ties. He is suffering from a calf injury and will sit out for ten days. Murali Vijay, the CSK batsman, has been declared fit to participate in the next contest.