Chinnaswamy remains in line to host RCB's home games during IPL 2026

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have kept the door open to returning to the M Chinnaswamy Stadium for their IPL 2026 home games, but want a "few grey areas" to be addressed before they can take a "responsible decision".

ESPNcricinfo understands that the franchise is seeking clarity on a provision that places responsibility for any incident in and around the venue on the organisers. RCB wants clear guidelines on how this ruling is to be applied, particularly given the involvement of three other stakeholders: the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), the BCCI and the Karnataka state government.

"While our desire is always to play at our home ground, in front of our ardent fans, we want to be thorough in our commitment to further understand the conditions applicable to host matches here and the measures taken to ensure fans safety protocols are met," RCB said in a statement. "Our goal is to see how best all stakeholders involved can work together.

"From our preliminary conversations, there are still a few grey areas that need to be looked into, and we are considering these parameters and inputs from all stakeholders before arriving at a responsible decision for the team and our fans."

At a press conference announcing the state association's proposed crowd-management measures for upcoming matches, KSCA president Venkatesh Prasad placed the onus on RCB to initiate "meaningful dialogue" with the government and "engage with them for the smooth conduct of matches." For now, he said, the communication had been "one-sided."

On his part, Prasad reaffirmed KSCA's commitment to complete pending work - as per the compliance roadmap placed by the home ministry - in and around the Chinnaswamy Stadium by the end of February. This roadmap was placed before the KSCA to ensure there is no repeat of incidents like the stampede that caused the death of 11 people during RCB's IPL victory celebrations in June.

As part of their crowd-management measures, the KSCA has earmarked the National Cricket Academy (NCA) entrance as the biggest concourse for fan entry, allowing spectators to be efficiently channelled and directed to different sections of the stadium.

In addition to enabling smooth entry into the concourse through digital tickets and QR codes regardless of seating allocation, the KSCA, in consultation with traffic authorities, has committed to making Queen's Road a traffic-free zone on match days. This stretch was identified as a "danger zone" for large crowd gatherings.

Among other measures, gate-widening around the stadium is in progress, with separate entry and exit points already chalked out to allow ambulances hassle-free entry in case of emergencies. Several areas have been designated for ramp construction to facilitate easier access for people with disabilities, as part of the measures laid out by the compliance committee.

"Unless and until the government agencies were convinced about the timelines that we had given them, about the work that we are going to do based on the report that we had received, they wouldn't have given us a go-ahead," Prasad explained.

While they will continue to engage with the BCCI and KSCA over the possibility of returning to the Chinnaswamy, RCB have mooted several other contingencies, including the possibility of playing their home games in Navi Mumbai and Raipur. ESPNcricinfo understands they also examined the possibility of playing in Indore, but the absence of a large number of corporate boxes is believed to be a major hurdle.

Two weeks ago, Rajesh Menon, RCB's COO, held a meeting with the Chhattisgarh chief minister to discuss logistics and the possibility of playing two "home" matches at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Stadium in Raipur.

The IPL is set to begin on March 26, with RCB playing the opening game since they are the defending champions. However, the BCCI is yet to announce the tournament schedule or the venue of the season-opener as it waits for a final nod from the franchise, which continues to engage with the KSCA.

Last week, RCB proposed to install 300-350 AI-enabled cameras for better crowd management, committing to bear a one-time cost of INR 4.5 crore.

The Chinnaswamy Stadium hasn't hosted top-flight cricket since a stampede on June 4 marred RCB's title-winning celebrations. Since then, the venue has lost out on hosting matches in the Maharaja T20, the Women's World Cup (including the final) as well as matches involving Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant during the Vijay Hazare Trophy.