Karnataka Government lifts ban on M Chinnaswamy Stadium; RCB's home venue on track for IPL 2026

In what comes as great news for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), the Karnataka government on Saturday (December 13) lifted the ban on M Chinnaswamy Stadium for hosting cricket matches. It must be remembered that the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) just had its elections last week with former Indian fast bowler Venkatesh Prasad taking over as the new boss.

With the stadium being RCB's iconic home venue in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the defending champions are now unlikely to make a change to their home venue for IPL 2026. Earlier last month, there were speculations of Pune being an alternative option for the defending champions to host their home matches if the Chinnaswamy Stadium continued to be banned.

Earlier this week, Prasad and his KSCA deputy Sujith Somasunder held extensive meetings with Karnataka Chief Minister Siddharamaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar. It must also be noted that Shivakumar had publicly vowed to bring cricket to Chinnaswamy Stadium for IPL 2026. The discussions between the two parties ended on a positive note, thereby giving a new lease of life to the marquee venue.

Reports suggest that the Bengaluru stadium could return to competitive cricket in this month itself with the Vijay Hazare Trophy set to start at the fag end of December. KSCA are planning to shift the matches from Alur leg due to logistical hassles and the Chinnaswamy Stadium could be the new venue for these matches.

One of the teams that are playing VHT games in Alur is Delhi and with Virat Kohli confirming his availability for three games, the former RCB skipper could be playing at his IPL home venue in the matter of a few weeks. So will Rishabh Pant who is also part of the Delhi squad for the first three games.