“At this moment, no one cares,” lamented a Mumbai cricket fan as the Indian Premier League 2026 final was once again allotted to Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium. Ardent fans of the game will now once again pack their bags and travel to the familiar landscape where another pinnacle of the cricket tournament is about to be played.

This is the fourth time in five years IPL final is scheduled to be played in Ahmedabad. Traditionally, the defending champions, in this year’s case Royal Challengers Bangalore, have been given the privilege of hosting the summit clash.

However, over the past few years, that privilege has been taken away by Eden Gardens, home of 2024 champions Kolkata Knight Riders and of course RCB, which won the tournament in 2025.

The Indian cricket board has been very clear about why Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy Stadium is not hosting the summit clash this year. In an interview, BCCI secretary Devjit Saikia said that the board has given a green signal to the conduct of Karnataka’s political class. who allegedly demanded 10,000 free tickets Ahead of high-profile games.

This was on top of the 15 per cent allocation that the BCCI already gives to the state association hosting the match. With nearly 16,000 of the 40,000 tickets missing even before the public sale, the BCCI probably asked itself: why hand over such an iconic game to a venue that has time and again created unwanted controversies in Indian cricket – from the stampede issue to the repeated chaos around ticket allotment, which resurfaced right at the start. IPL Even 2026?

And that’s fair enough. If the BCCI feels that undue pressure is being put on the board, it has every right to rein in the state association. But then, how fair is it to move the 2025 final away from Eden Gardens?

The final match at Eden Gardens, an iconic venue in Indian cricket, was canceled by the BCCI citing weather concerns. The board had said that there was a possibility of rain in Kolkata during the IPL final and to be safe they had shifted the game to Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

This is the same place in Ahmedabad where The 2023 final took two days to completeMaking it a nightmare for many traveling visitors.

Ironically, the weather in Kolkata was bad on the day of the final in 2025, making the decision seem more harsh.

“I’m so tired of watching finals from the stadium. 2022. 2023 two finals. 2025. 2026 two finals,” one

Another said, “Despite being a proud Ahmedabad. Despite being proud of having a wonderful venue like Narendra Modi Stadium in our city. I believe there are a lot of big matches being played here.”

Why are all the cricket finals going to Ahmedabad?

Let us argue that BCCI is allowing only one stadium in the country to host the big game.

If we consider this as a baseline, India is not the first country to allocate its biggest games to one place.

Australia has the Melbourne Cricket Ground. England has Lord’s. And if we focus on football, London’s Wembley Stadium has consistently hosted some of the biggest international matches over the years.

In a way, this is what the association or country is telling the world: This is the stability we are offering to domestic or traveling fans.

The second aspect is the capacity of the stadium. Narendra Modi Stadium can accommodate more than 1,00,000 spectators.

BCCI sources told IndiaToday.in that Ahmedabad has started becoming the preferred venue as a large number of tickets can be sold even after allotting passes to the host association and stakeholders.

There is also the question of optics. Ahmedabad simply looks gorgeous on television. Aerial shots, packed stands and large-scale celebrations help create the feeling of a mega event, something that broadcasters and administrators are naturally attracted to for finals.

And perhaps this is the real strength of Ahmedabad. It is no longer just a cricket stadium, but has become the default stage for the biggest events of Indian cricket.

Is this fair for the rest of the stadiums in India?

Ahmedabad perhaps does not yet carry the generational spirit and history of places like Eden Gardens, Wankhede or Chepauk.

And these venues not getting any finals is, of course, not good for the fans.

In recent years, frustration has also been expressed at the BCCI for not adequately compensating those centers with other major matches. If the board wants Ahmedabad to host the biggest game for whatever reason, the next tier of high-profile fixtures should at least rotate across major stadiums in the country.

But this should not absolve BCCI of its double standards.

The board did not allocate Women’s World Cup matches to centers like Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai, saying it wanted to take the games to smaller centres.

But if we talk about Men’s T20 World Cup, Chennai and Delhi did not get a chance to reach even a single semi-final. And perhaps this underlines the unions’ frustration.

IPL was built on the identity of the city

One of the reasons the IPL became such a huge cultural force in India was that it never felt neutral. Was from Chepauk, Chennai. Was from Mumbai Wankhede. Kolkata’s heartbeat passed through the Eden Gardens, while Bengaluru turned the Chinnaswamy Stadium into an annual carnival.

The league was built, like cricket, on geography.

Fans didn’t just support teams, they also supported cities, local cultures, and home venues that gradually became extensions of the franchises themselves. The IPL final journey across the country was also part of that ecosystem. It allowed different fans to feel ownership over the league’s biggest night.

And perhaps this is where some inconvenience arises around Ahmedabad. If each major sport begins to move towards a single centre, the tournament risks gradually losing some of its regional texture.

And in a country as diverse as India, point A to point B is not at most a three-hour drive away. It probably feels very bad when the festival of cricket does not come around you for a long time.

And now the time has come for BCCI to look into this. It is fine if there are fixed centers for major international sports in India, but a competition like IPL should remain all-India.

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