Kings XI Punjab Name Dharamsala Their Second Home Venue

By: Tarish Bhatt

Following Bombay High Court’s decision of moving the Indian Premier League matches out of Maharashtra, Kings XI Punjab has opted to use Dharamsala as their second home venue for the tournament.

Earlier, the Kings were slated to play their three home matches in Nagpur, but owing to water crisis in the region they have moved their matches to Dharamsala, the team informed in a statement.

Kings XI Punjab statement: We are happy to announce that Kings XI Punjab will be playing our three home games in Dharamshala. We are grateful to the HPCA for their support in helping us make this transition seamless at such short notice.

Meanwhile, the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) is not confident of hosting the matches in Dharamsala, seeing what happened during the World T20 last month.

Hours after the Punjab-based franchisee issued the statement, a HPCA spokesperson insisted that the matches could be affected by the politics in the state.

“After the manner in which the venue lost the Pakistan match in the World T20, we are wary about the politics being played by the state government as the Himachal Pradesh CA president Anurag Thakur is a BJP MP,” the HPCA spokesperson said.