The Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) has failed to get clearance from the Bengaluru police, as they have missed that they won’t be able to host the franchise-based T20 competition, the Maharaja T20, which was going to be staged from August 11 to 27 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. The games will now move to Mysuru, as all the sides’ owners have been notified of the change.

Most franchises, including the Mysuru Warriors, had been training at various venues across the city over the past week. The failure to get the permission to host their domestic T20 event is a huge blow to the KSCA, which is also stated to host five matches of the upcoming Women’s World Cup 2025 this autumn, including the tournament opener and one semifinal, starting September 30. Now, there are concerns if the ground could host the IPL games in the future. 

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The association has been under scrutiny after 11 people died and over 50 were injured during the celebration of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru winning their maiden season of the league without permission on June 04, as the authorities have put the moral responsibility tag on the board.

Maharaja T20 tournament moves from Bengaluru to Mysuru

The Maharaja T20 is going to feature several high-profile Karnataka stars, including Karun Nair and Prasidh Krishna, who will be part of the Warriors after their return home post the five-match drawn Test series in England. The former is expected to be out of the first few games after picking up a finger injury during the second innings of the South London Test.

Earlier, the event was expected to be held behind closed doors in Bengaluru, but now the focus for KSCA is to make a smooth progression of the competition in Mysuru, where they will face various challengers, including the temporary broadcast facilities, seating arrangement, pitches, squares, and floodlights at the Wadeyar Stadium.

Some of the other notable players to feature in the T20 tournament will be Manish Pandey, Mayank Agarwal, and Devdutt Paddikal, while some of the young players will be R Smaran, Vijaykumar Vyshak, KV Aneesh, and Nikin Jose. Meanwhile, the women’s Maharani T20 competition will be played in Alur from August 04.

In a huge domestic deal for the 2025-26 season, a huge move is going to be made by the current number three batter of the Indian Test side, Karun Nair. He had a fabulous season with Vidarbha for the last edition, where in the white-ball trophy, he finished as the leading run-getter of the tournament.

India's Nair smashed 779 runs in eight innings at an average of 389.50 and a strike rate of nearly 124.04, scoring five centuries and one half-century at the best score of unbeaten 163 runs. In the Ranji Trophy 2024-25, the right-handed batter clubbed 863 runs to be the fourth highest run-getter in 16 innings at an average of 53.93, thanks to four centuries and two fifties at the best score of 135 runs.

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But for the upcoming edition, Nair has made an interesting shift to represent a new side. He will return to his home domestic season, Karnataka, due to personal reasons. The veteran, who recently marked his return to the national side, has collected only 111 runs in four innings at an average of under 28 with the best score of 40.

Karun Nair returns to Karnataka for 2025-26 domestic season

Apart from Nair, Vasuki Koushik, the 32-year-old right-arm pacer from Karnataka, has made a move to Goa for the forthcoming season. He has secured a No Objection Certificate from the Karnataka Cricket Association and has become one of the two players professionally to get signed by the Goa Cricket Association (GCA).

‘We have signed Koushik. So far, that is the only confirmed transfer. We are exploring a few other options, but no names have been finalized yet.’ The GCA secretary, Sambha Desai, expressed on July 19 that the left-arm pacer, Arjun Tendulkar, of Mumbai, is the other professional player to be part of the Goa side. Their opening batter, Yashasvi Jaiswal, was about to make the move but later backed out.

Koushik featured in the seven Ranji Trophy, five Vijay Hazare games, and 10 T20s for Karnataka last year, to claim 23, eight, and 18 wickets respectively. Bengal has also added their premier pacer, Mohammed Shami, among the probable players for the upcoming edition of the tournament. The CAB secretary, Naresh Ojha, released the list of the players.  

Following the tragic stampede near Bengaluru's M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on June 4, in which 11 people died and several others were injured, comes a significant development. The Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), in a June 3 letter to the state government, has established that the RCB match-winning celebrations had been approved beforehand. The communication to the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR) points out the role of KSCA in granting permission for the felicitation function organized at the Vidhana Soudha after Royal Challengers Bengaluru's historic IPL 2025 title victory.

Though the formal function at the Vidhana Soudha was conducted without hitches, a free-for-all erupted outside the Chinnaswamy Stadium following an open invitation on social media that triggered a public congregation. The massive crowd, a lack of crowd control, and an awful stampede resulted. The public was outraged, and an FIR was filed against all the senior KSCA officials, including President Raghuram Bhat, Secretary A. Shankar, and Treasurer E.S. Jairam.

KSCA filed a Petition with the Karnataka High Court, basically saying that they were not responsible except for arranging for permissions and putting up the infrastructure. The crowd management and event planning, they claimed, were carried out by RCB and its events partner, DNA Entertainment Networks. The letter presented also emphasized that gate management and delivery were under RCB and DNA, in cooperation with local officials.

High Court Intervention and KSCA Resignations

The Karnataka High Court, on suo motu notice of the incident, has stopped the police from acting against KSCA officials until the next hearing on June 16. It also asked the state government to file a status report by June 10.

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In the face of growing questions and public outrage, KSCA Secretary A. Shankar and Treasurer E.S. Jairam resigned. While KSCA still maintains that it played no part in crowd management outside the stadium, the resignations have been interpreted as an attempt to help take the heat out of the situation while investigations continue.