The IPL governing council on Sunday decided to move out the semi-final matches of the Twenty-20 tournament from Bangalore to Navi Mumbai due to security concerns. The decision was taken in the wake of the two low-intensity bomb blasts that occurred outside the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday ahead of the clash between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Mumbai Indians.
The announcement regarding the same was made by the IPL commissioner Lalit Modi who emphasized that the IPL governing council was not ready to take any chances and wanted to ensure the safety of players and spectators. He added, “the incidents were assessed by local police and the IPL’s security agency as being of a minor nature but they have forced our hand.”
Modi said in his statement that the decision of changing the venue is naturally disappointing for the people of Bengaluru but has been taken in consideration of the tournament’s best interests and the interests of its many varied stakeholders. He further said, “While reluctant to relocate the semi-finals at such short notice, yesterday’s incidents have made it clear that the current environment in Bangalore prevents us from continuing with our original plans.”
Wishing a speedy recovery to the injured, the IPL commissioner asserted that the semi-finals and finals of DLF IPL 2010 will be successfully contested and provide a fitting finale to a remarkable tournament in spite the minor hiccup.
The minor explosions that took place outside the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday minutes before the start of the match left atleast eight people with injuries and resulted in delaying the match by an hour. Besides the twin blasts, two other bombs were procured later in the evening which were defused successfully by the bomb squad of the Karnataka Police. The security situation further came under scanner as an unexploded device and couple of other suspicious materials was discovered from the area surrounding the stadium on Sunday.
The two semi-final encounters, scheduled to take place on April 21 and April 22, shall now be played at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
With this change in the venue, all the knockout matches of the DLF IPL 2010 tournament including the two semi-final matches, play-off contest for the third position and the final encounter would be played at the DY Patil Sports Academy stadium in Navi Mumbai.
By: Meenal Johari (Agra).
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