After Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh too asks for IPL playoff ties

Even as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the fixtures of IPL 11 on Wednesday, the list of associations wanting to host the playoff games of this edition of the high-profile T20 league grew bigger.
A day after it emerged that the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) has asked the Board to allot two playoff ties to Pune on the grounds that the now defunct Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS), which reached the IPL 10 final, was based out of Pune, it’s learnt that the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) too has expressed its willingness to host these matches.

In a letter (a copy is with TOI) addressed to the BCCI acting president CK Khanna, acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary, and IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla, MPCA secretary Milind Kanmadikar has requested for allotment of IPL play-off matches to Indore.
“We place before you our request for allotment of play-off segment matches of the forthcoming IPL season to us, which we shall stage at Holkar Stadium, Indore. Our venue has witnessed several exciting matches, international as well as domestic, attracting record-break crowd attendance at each instance. While our pitches and outfield has received accolades for its premium quality, we also have demonstrated our organising abilities whenever opportunity of hosting big matches was given to us. The city of Indore can offer other conveniences like hotels, air connectivity etc. required for such matches,” states the letter.

The letter goes on to state that “the three IPL matches during previous season were extremely successful on all accounts and we are hopeful that the franchise (KXIP) would prefer our venue for this season as well. In view of the above, we sincerely expect tremendous response in case of play-off match(es) being allotted to us. We shall be grateful to you if our above request is considered favourably.”
Like last season, Kings XI Punjab is playing their first three games in Indore.