Dharamsala suffers more loss as IPL matches shifted out of HPCA

It seems that the Dharamsala will have to bear much more loss than just the Indo-Pak game which had to be moved out of the HPCA Stadium to the Kolkata on Wednesday after a sequence of torrid debate. It has been reported that the HPCA stadium will now miss out on hosting matches of the upcoming season of Indian Premier League (IPL) too.

Dharamsala is one of the home venues for the IPL team Kings XI Punjab. The Punjab franchise had requested the Indian cricket board (BCCI) to shift its share of matches from the HPCA stadium to the VCA stadium in Nagpur, to which the BCCI readily agreed. Consequently, the latest IPL schedule doesn’t mention Dharamsala as a venue.

The Himachal government charges a huge amount to provide security to players and officials, and also levies a hefty entertainment tax during the IPL. These two factors have played a big role in Kings XI opting for Nagpur as their home venue. Additionally, the team will stand to gain much more through gate money at the Nagpur stadium. Kings XI had cited these issues in its written request to the BCCI in the month of January this year. IPL matches were not held in Dharamsala even last year.

HPCA spokesperson Sanjay Sharma blamed the Congress-led state government for Dharamsala not getting its due share in the upcoming IPL.

“Franchisees do not want to take the risk of hosting matches here (in Dharamsala) due to the politics played by Congress-led state government. They are trying to harm the HPCA’s image directly or indirectly because the association president is Anurag Thakur who belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party,” he said.

The biggest casualty in this longstanding tussle between Virbhadra Singh and Anurag Thakur is the sport itself and its fans. When BJP was in power in the state, the HPCA stadium had been the home ground of Kings XI Punjab for four years from 2010 to 2013.