Rajasthan Royals Well Within Rules to Move Home Games to Guwahati: BCCI

New Delhi: While the Rajasthan High Court is on Thursday expected to give a decision on the PIL that has challenged the decision of Rajasthan Royals to shift a couple of their home games to Guwahati for the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the BCCI has backed the Royals and made it clear that they have not broken any rules in requesting for a second home venue.

Speaking to IANS, sources in the know of things said that the rules and regulations of the IPL allows a franchise to move three of its home games to a second venue as long as it has the approval of the IPL Governing Council.

“The rules clearly say that you can play three of your home matches at a second venue as long as you have the clearance of the IPL GC. So, the Royals franchise is not doing anything that is against the policy,” the source said.

When contacted, a Royals official made it clear that the move to shift a couple of its games to Guwahati was done keeping in mind a number of factors and it wasn’t just aimed at generating more revenues.

“See, there is no denying the fact that the revenues generated is an area of concern. But then, that isn’t the sole reason behind us wanting to play a few home games in Guwahati. We are also looking at spreading the game to the city and northeast in general. We do have a lot of Rajasthan origin people in Guwahati and we feel that it would be a nice idea to give them an opportunity to witness their favourite players live in action.

“This apart, we are looking at working at the grassroots level in the northeast and in the coming time, you may see academies being started by us there. So, we are looking at taking the game to the locals there and not to forget our local hero Riyan Parag. We have nothing against anyone and we are positive that the court will understand that we aren’t trying to hurt any sentiment by moving a couple of our games from Jaipur to Guwahati,” the official told IANS.