IPL 2016: Bombay High Court allows match in Pune on 1 May

The Bombay High Court provided relief to the Board of Control for Cricket in India by allowing the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) to host the IPL match between the Rising Pune Super Giants and the Mumbai Indians in Pune on May 1.

Earlier, the BCCI had moved the Bombay High Court requesting it to permit the IPL 2016 match to be played on 1 May in Pune. It seems that the High Court has accepted the BCCI’s plea and has given its consent for the match to go ahead.

Last week, the Bombay High Court ordered the IPL matches to be shifted out of Maharashtra after 30 April keeping in mind the drought situation in the state

Practically impossible to shift the match

The BCCI moved the court "post haste" through its "authorized representative" Ratnakar Shetty, pointing out that RPSG has home matches against the Gujarat Lions on April 29 and against MI on May 1.

The board also pointed out that it would be practically impossible for both the BCCI and RPSG to shift the particular match to an alternative venue outside Maharashtra "and make all the arrangements in a day."

In the 16 April application, which is filed in a pending public interest litigation which highlighted the misuse of water for maintaining the pitches, Shetty stated that it is "an accepted international practice for there to be two days gap between matches which provides adequate time for travel, practice other preparation."

He also added that the transport and shifting of television production equipment and crew also requires a minimum gap of two days.

The BCCI in its last bid to save the matches in Maharashtra said that the Pune and Mumbai IPL teams were willing to donate Rs 5 crore each to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund and supply 40 lakh litres of water to the drought-hit Marathwada region of the state. They also said that it would not be feasible to shift the IPL matches out of Pune.

The board also cleared its stance before Justices V.M. Kanade and M.S. Karnik, on a PIL filed by NGO Loksatta Movement, challenging the use of large quantities of water in stadiums at a time when the state was going through severe drought conditions. Also, the BCCI’s counsel Rafiq Dada told the High Court that the cricket board is willing to supply over 60 lakh litres of non-potable water to drought-hit areas in Maharashtra, free of cost.

However, all these efforts yielded no benefit as the Bombay High Court ruled against the BCCI and ordered the matches to be shifted out of Maharashtra. The Mumbai Indians team had to choose Jaipur as their home venue and the Pune franchise opted for Visakhapatnam as their home base.