After issues related to drought forced Indian Premier League (IPL) matches out of Maharashtra and hiccups over hosting the ICC World Twenty20 matches in Delhi, the BCCI seems to have made up its mind to build a stadium that is owned by the BCCI and has no interference from the state governments.
Most likely to be built in Delhi over the next five years, the BCCI is reportedly already in motion to buy land for the proposed ground.
According to The Indian Express, the idea of a board-owned stadium was mooted at BCCI's first annual conclave in Dharamsala and the Working Committee members were on the same page with president Anurag Thakur when asked to express their views on it.
“Yes, we discussed this in the working committee with the members. Members agreed that time has come when BCCI should have its own state-of-the-art stadium where some of the marquee matches could be played, be it the IPL finals or World Cup finals,” Thakur told the newspaper.
Apart from the hiccups during IPL - where matches had to be shifted out of Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur after PILs dragged the BCCI to court over the use of water when Maharashtra was facing drought, the high-profile India-Pakistan match in the World T20 had to be shifted from Dharamsala to Kolkata after protests over the Pakistan team's visit.
The BCCI thus wants to have an alternate option on hand to counter such situations.