Mumbai, who have qualified for the knockout stage of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy inter-state Twenty20 tournament, won’t be playing their matches on their home ground — Wankhede Stadium. The reason: Indian Premier League.

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As the Wankhede is the home ground of the Mumbai Indians, it is being handed over to them. The BCCI rule stipulates that local associations should hand over their grounds to the franchise a month before the start of the tournament.

The IPL starts on April 4 and the Mushtaq Ali Trophy tournament will be held between March 23 and 27.  

The knock-out stages of the tournament will be held on two grounds and one of the venues is MCA’s Bandra-Kurla Complex. The Mumbai Cricket Association is yet to choose the second ground. It could be the Brabourne Stadium.

“The Wankhede won’t be hosting the Mushtaq Ali Trophy because of the IPL. It is the home ground of the Mumbai Indians and we have to hand over the venue to them a month in advance. We’ll host some games at the BKC. The talks are on with the Cricket Club of India for second ground,” a top MCA official said.

Mumbai finished on top of the West Zone league. The other team from the zone is Baroda. Madhya Pradesh and Railways (from Central Zone), Bengal and Assam (from East Zone), Punjab and  Delhi (from North Zone) and Tamil Nadu and Karnataka (from South Zone) are the other teams in the Twenty20 competition.