Two Indian Premier League matches scheduled for May 14 and 16 at the D Y Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai are likely to be shifted to the Wankhede Stadium in South Mumbai, according to Cricket Board sources.
"The matches scheduled at D Y Patil on May 14 and 16 are likely to be shifted to the Wankhede Stadium," the sources told PTI.
"The Mumbai franchise owners (Reliance Industries) want them to be shifted and the D Y Patil authorities do not have any objections," they added.
Mumbai Indians, the team representing the home team franchise owners, are to play against Chennai Super Kings on May 14 and then clash with Kolkata Knight Riders on May 16. Both the matches are to be held from 2000 hrs onwards.
Chennai Super Kings is owned by India Cements while the Kolkata franchise belongs to Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan's Red Chllies Entertainment.
According to other sources, the franchise team were not happy with the long commute to D Y Patil Stadium from their hotel in central Mumbai.
"The long commute (around 50 kms both ways), the lack of privacy in the dressing room and the location of the players' dining room far away from the dressing room are not to the liking of the team," they said.
The dressing rooms are at ground level with only sliding glass doors shielding the players from outside.
If the two ties are shifted to the Wankhede Stadium it would mean that the regular international venue, set to undergo a revamp soon for the 2011 World Cup final, will be hosting seven IPL matches in all - including two semi finals and the June 1 final - after none were scheduled to be held there initially.
Originally, the Mumbai franchise owners had been offered the Cricket Club of India's Brabourne Stadium and the D Y Patil Stadium as their home venues.
However, CCI backed out because as per the agreement between the IPL authorities and franchise onwers, the latter would command 80 per cent of all seats, including those in the clubhouse, a condition the club could not fulfill as it flouted its constitution.
Then D Y Patil and Wankhede Stadium were pencilled in as the two venues after the plans for refurbishment of the latter were not approved by the authories as per an earlier schedule.
The 10 matches to be hosted by Mumbai Indians outfit got divided equally with Wankhede scheduled to host the first tie on April 20 and D Y Patil set to organise matches on April 27, May 4, 7, 14 and 16 before the action was to switch back to the senior venue.
But with the likely change in plans, the 55,000-capacity state-of-art D Y Patil Stadium - touted as one of the alternative venue to host the India-England Test this year-end if CCI is unavailable - looks set to organise only three IPL ties this season.
