Why Eden Gardens lost IPL Playoffs to Delhi?

By: Sandipan Bose

Overuse of the centre pitch at the Eden Gardens led to the cancellation of the IPL Qualifier 2 and Eliminator, which was earlier scheduled to be held in Kolkata.

According to BCCI sources, Kolkata was the first choice of the IPL governing council to stage those two IPL playoffs games, but the moment the BCCI was told about the condition of the pitch, they decided to change the venue.

“The board was informed about how the Kolkata Knight Riders were using Eden Garden’s centre pitch in most of their home games and it won’t be a good idea to play on such a deck. There was bit of uncertainty surrounding the pitch,” a source told Drcricket7 on Saturday.

Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla was then picked to host both the play-off games. “The Kotla pitch was doing well during the Delhi Daredevils league matches and turned out to be a good batting track In last few games. The IPL management is convinced that Delhi can pitch it right,” the source said.

Another source insisted that the IPL was getting only two to three days after KKR’s last league game (May 22) in Kolkata to redo the stadium for the play-off games.

“It takes time to remove the branded hording inside the stadium and put the new ones before the play-off games. Because the match belongs to the BCCI and so, the IPL management decided to change the venue from Kolkata to Delhi,” the source added.