IPL franchise team Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) may shift their home ground from Mohali to Dharmashala.
PCA (Punjab Cricket Assossiation) is the current home ground of KXIP which is at Mohali, Punjab from the first IPL while HPCA (Himachal Pradesh Cricket Stadium) is the secondary home ground which is at Dharmashala, Himachal Pradesh.
According to reports, the KXIP management has approached BCCI (The Board of Council for Cricket in India) for changing their home ground from Mohali to Dharmasala, for the reason of security situation and revival of “terrorism” in Punjab.
Punjab’s opposition Congress leadership requested to KXIP for staying in Punjab, saying that the present situation will change soon.
Congress’ state chief Amarinder Singh said about the KXIP’s decision, “Grave concern over the fears expressed by the Kings XI cricket team about the deteriorating law and order situation in Punjab”.
The state government was held responsible by him (Akali Dal) for the “sense of fear and uncertainty”, and also said that it will discourage to the potential investors at further.
Amarinder said, “It would be absolutely wrong to summarily dismiss their (KXIP) concerns as exaggerated since an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty was created in the state deliberately during last few months.”
Amarinder requested KXIP to review their plan. He told, “I hope that the KXIP team reviews its plans to move out of Mohali. We assure them that Punjab will always remain peaceful despite the deliberate attempts by the Akali government at controlled destabilisation to divert public attention from its all-round failures. It is matter of one year more and everything will be back to normal.”
In October of this year, Punjab has seen violent protests following incidents of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib. Radical Sikh elements have are divided after these incidents.