Devajit Saikia, who is the secretary of the BCCI, on Thursday opened up on shifting the IPL 2026 final venue from Bengaluru to Ahmedabad. The Indian Cricket Board announced the playoff venues on Thursday, and the name of M Chinnaswamy Stadium was missing from the list. The Qualifier 1 will be held in Dharamsala on May 26, while the Eliminator and Qualifier 2 are scheduled to be played in New Chandigarh on May 27 and May 29, respectively. The final will be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium on May 31.
Speaking to ANI, Saikia mentioned that the Karnataka State Cricket Association was asking for complimentary tickets beyond the limit. According to the rules and regulations, 15 percent of the capacity of the stadium is the limit for the complimentary tickets for the host association.
“We can only give 15 percent of the total capacity of the stadium as complimentary tickets to the host association. This is the protocol that has been in practice for years. All the state associations hosting the IPL matches get 15 percent of the total capacity as tickets,” Saikia said.
The BCCI was informed that the KSCA was seeking a big share of the complimentary tickets. “We got information from our sources that during the IPL league matches, the Karnataka State Association was claiming a higher number of wickets, which exceeded the 15 percent limit,” he added.
The board tried to seek clarification from the KSCA, and their reply surprised the top brass.
“We wrote an email to know about the details related to the matter. We were shocked by the Karnataka State Cricket Association’s reply on May 2. They clearly stated that they would need more tickets from the prescribed limit for their members, clubs, and others,” he revealed.
He further highlighted that the request also included local legislators and the state government.
“It was surprising that they needed tickets for the MLAs and also 700 tickets for the government of Karnataka. Apart from the 15 percent allocation, they demanded approximately 10,000 extra tickets.”
Earlier, Karnataka deputy chief minister D. K. Shivakumar had stated that MLAs would get three complimentary tickets for IPL matches and two for international matches in Bengaluru. The decision was announced after discussing the matter with the KSCA officials. The elected representatives were not pleased with the ticket distribution and arrangements at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
U T Khader, the Assembly Speaker, told the state government to make sure that every MLA is given four VIP tickets for the matches held in the state.
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