BCCI shifted the IPL 2019 final from Chennai to Hyderabad

The Indian Premier League(IPL) final will be scheduled on May 12. On Monday (April 22), the IPL finals was shifted from Chennai to Hyderabad after the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) failed to get requisite permission from the government to open the three closed stands.

But the Chennai Super Kings still have a chance to play Qualifier 1 at home if they finish among the top two teams in the league, the Eliminator (May 8) and Qualifier 2 (May 10) has been shifted to Visakhapatnam.

BCCI Committee of Administrators (CoA) chief, Vinod Rai said, "We had to shift the matches from Chennai to Hyderabad after TNCA intimated us that they have not procured the requisite permission to open the three stands I, J and K".

He added, "Since the gate sales of the knock-out matches is BCCI's prerogative, we had to take a call. We would be having two knock-out matches in Vizag".

The three stands at the MA Chidambaram stadium make up for more than 12,000 tickets and BCCI would have lost out on a few crores of gate money. The stands have remained closed since 2012 save one international match between India and Pakistan when an exception was made.

When asked, why the Qualifier 1 was not shifted out? Vinod Rai said, "CSK, by virtue of being defending champions, were allotted the Qualifier 1 and final. Now if they finish in top two, you cannot take away all the games. They deserve to get at least one of the knock-out games".

Because of the general elections in the Cyber city on May 6, 8 and 10, Hyderabad only got the final and not the Eliminator or Qualifier.