IPL: Ahmedabad to host three finals in four years, Kolkata's hopes end

It’s official now: the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad will be hosting the second qualifier and the rescheduled final of IPL 2025 on 1 and 3 June, respectively. Losing out in the bargain will be Eden Gardens as for the first time in history barring the pandemic, the home venue of the defending champions (Kolkata Knight Riders in this case) will miss out on the finale.

The mood at the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) on Tuesday was that of resignation, though none of the senior officials were willing to speak on record about what they felt at being ‘deprived’ of a tradition. ‘’The new venues for the play-offs were decided by the IPL Governing Council keeping in mind the weather conditions and other parameters,’’ the official press release said, with a possibility that the monsoon will arrive in Bengal by the first week of June.

Hyderabad (home of Sunrisers Hyderabad, the 2024 runners-up), which was supposed to host the first two qualifiers on 29 and 30 May as per convention, have also lost out both the games to Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur, the new home of Punjab Kings. The argument behind picking Ahmedabad in western India and Mullanpur, the latter being not among the six venues in the revised fixtures, is that monsoon kicks in late in north and west India.

There are no prizes for guessing that the powers that-be in the BCCI would have Ahmedabad as their go-to venue for any contingency plan, and it will now be hosting their third IPL final in four years, as it did some plum matches of the 2023 ICC World Cup, including the final. The 130,000-capacity venue was allotted the 2022 IPL final once it was ready, then again hosted it the next year after Gujarat Titans won the crown on their debut season, and will now host the 2025 final.

The moment IPL 2025 season resumed on 17 May after a week's suspension owing to rising tensions between India and Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack, the buzz about Ahmedabad being the likely host for the final was in the air. When the BCCI announced a revised schedule, it did not confirm the venues for the play-offs, leaving the venues of the final four matches open to speculation.

‘’A total of 17 matches will be played across six venues, starting May 17, 2025, and culminating in the final on June 3, 2025,’’ the BCCI statement said while announcing the new fixtures at Bengaluru, Jaipur, Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

The CAB, on seeing Kolkata being dropped as a venue, had pleaded its case to the BCCI in an official email, along with weather predictions for both 3-4 June and its proven track record in case of rain interruptions. While there is a 34 per cent chance of rain in Kolkata on 3 June as per , the reserve day on 4 June shows no rain predictions.  

Meanwhile, insiders at the IPL governing council meeting on Tuesday hinted that the stakeholders, namely the official broadcasters, did not want the season to be prolonged further under any condition. ‘’It was a tough call but the official broadcasters had the final say in view of the rain forecast on the concerned days in both Hyderabad and Kolkata. There is a great financial implication as the seven-day suspension has already put a huge burden on all stakeholders and the prerogative is to finish the tournament on schedule,’’ they added.