Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy Stadium, which has been the home ground for Virat Kohli ever since he has played for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL, was deemed unfit for hosting large-scale tournaments after the stampede marred RCB’s victory celebrations. However, with efforts from Venkatesh Prasad and the KSCA, government officials have cleared Chinnaswamy to host IPL matches and international cricket going forward.
One of India’s most widely known grounds and the home ground for the most loved IPL team, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru was deemed not appropriate to host tournaments that draw massive crowd attention, due to the mismanagement of RCB’s victory celebrations, which led to a stampede situation marking the death of 11 people.
Ever since then, the Chinnaswamy Stadium has not hosted any of the top-flight cricket tournaments; it even missed out on some of the KSCA domestic tournament matches. They missed out on the hosting of the KSCA Maharaja T20 tournament, the Women’s World Cup matches, including the final, and lastly the Vijay Hazare Trophy games involving Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant’s return.
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Virat Kohli and RCB’s home ground, Chinnaswamy, gets a green signal as IPL hosts
Following months of uncertainty around the hosting of matches at the infamous Chinnaswamy Stadium, the government has given the green light to the KSCA to host IPL matches and then international games going forward.
The Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), ever since the appointment of their new president, former Indian cricketer Venkatesh Prasad, has been working on ways to prevent any further bad incidents, which met the home ministry’s approval. However, the approval is “subject to compliance with specific terms and conditions prescribed by the government and concerned authorities.”
As of now, the only issue that has been solved by the KSCA is a long-standing problem of power supply with BESCOM, the Bengaluru electricity regulatory authority, over fire-safety compliance.
Will the ‘King’ return to his fortress for IPL 2026?
While this advancement is a huge development surrounding the venue’s future, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s return to the venue for IPL 2026 seems to be a very distant deal. Hence, Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bengaluru might be defending their title, but not in their home ground.
The RCB COO, Rajesh Menon, recently had a word with the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister over the possibility of the Shaheed Veer Narayan Stadium in Raipur staging their home matches in 2026.
The other two possibilities for hosting their games have been the MCA Stadium in Pune and the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, which have already hosted WPL matches over the past few seasons.
KSCA is looking to fix major issues surrounding safety precautions at the Chinnaswamy Stadium
The KSCA is fixing the issues at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. They have floated tenders to undertake remedial measures, like widening of entry and exit gates around the stadium. Their primary challenge would remain to ensure the safety of people entering the venue.
The IPL will begin on the 26th of March, and RCB will play the opening match as the defending champions of the tournament. However, the BCCI is yet to announce the schedule as well as the venues, as they are awaiting an official confirmation.
The RCB team had proposed to install 300-350 AI-enabled cameras for better crowd management, committing to bear the one-time cost of INR 4.5 crores.
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