The BCCI recently announced the schedule for the IPL 2021 and six cities have been shortlisted for hosting the fixtures. The cities include Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi and Kolkata while Mohali was snubbed for being the host.
Punjab CM Amarinder Singh has now questioned BCCI’s decision. “I have written to them (BCCI) saying if they can have a match in Mumbai, which has had 9,000 cases per day, then what's wrong with Mohali. We will take the necessary precautions,” Amarinder Singh was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Earlier, a BCCI official had explained the reason behind Mohali not being selected as one of the venues for the IPL matches this year.
“We don’t want a situation to arise where we have an IPL match in Mohali and a farmer agitation march moves towards the stadium. It will attract media attention from all over the world. We don’t want such a situation to arise. Mohali is not among shortlisted venues due to the current scenario in the northern part of India," BCCI official said.
The tournament will have as many 56 matches. Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata will host 10 matches each while Delhi and Ahmedabad will have 8 games each. The IPL is slated to begin from April 9 in Chennai when defending champions Mumbai Indians will lock horns with RCB in the opener. MI won the 2020 season after beating Delhi Capitals in the final. This was MI’s fifth title win in the IPL.