Fortress Raipur takes centre stage as IPL champions come to town

The city has welcomed Royal Challengers Bengaluru with plenty of fanfare, but also a fair amount of security and safety protocols

Shashank Kishore

Published: May 9, 2026, 4:56 PM (1 hr ago)

The first sign that Royal Challengers Bengaluru have arrived in Raipur comes even before you spot their team bus or security vehicle. It begins right at the entrance of a sprawling resort on the city's outskirts. It has previously hosted politicians and state dignitaries but is now, for perhaps the first time, accommodating a travelling IPL contingent of this scale.

The resort resembles a fortress for the week. Even regular guests with confirmed bookings must navigate an additional layer of security before being allowed in. At the main gate, security personnel work off a daily-approved guest list shared by the hotel management. If your name is not on it, there is little chance of getting past the barricaded entry. Exceptions inevitably slip through, but by and large, the operation has been watertight.

Inside, an entire wing of the property has effectively been sealed off for the players and support staff. Pathways are barricaded, elevator access restricted, and movement tightly monitored. A local state association staffer says a fresh set of BCCI protocols, means every possible effort is being made to insulate the players from the frenzy that inevitably follows IPL teams. And yet, complete isolation hasn't been possible. Not with Virat Kohli in town.

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A handful of autograph hunters still linger around the restaurant area in the hope of catching a glimpse of the players. When the squad departed for training on Saturday evening, hotel staff briefly cordoned off a passage leading to the team bus. Those who had somehow managed to sneak into the premises stood frozen for a few seconds, watching their favourite cricketers walk by from afar.

Hospitality arrangements are just one small part of the jigsaw. Logistical and administrative arrangements can't be understated either. The state government has rolled out the red carpet for the franchise, offering tax exemptions with the chief minister's office giving them a personal assurance of hosting without any hitches.

The Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium, with a capacity of nearly 60,000, has also offered little more maneuvering of tickets to satisfy sponsors and corporates.

This has traditionally been a challenge in Bengaluru because of Chinnaswamy's capacity, but it has been made even tougher this year because a significant chunk of tickets had to be reserved for the state government officials and MLAs. This is widely believed to have contributed to Bengaluru losing the IPL final to Ahmedabad.

Beyond the arrangements and crowd capacity, the franchise has also tried to leverage a subtle regional connection. Chhattisgarh sits geographically close to Madhya Pradesh, the state that has a number of RCB players, including Rajat Patidar, Venkatesh Iyer and Mangesh Yadav. RCB's captain, Patidar, in particular, has unsurprisingly emerged as one of the biggest local attractions and there were several #RaPa banners on show outside the main gates of the venue in pouring rain.

On Friday night, a cultural show featuring local folk dancers and singers was followed by a traditional Chhattisgarhi dinner. Even the weather, locals joked, seemed determined to make RCB feel at home.

Showers and thunderstorms swept through Raipur and nearby areas on Friday and Saturday, very reminiscent of evenings in Bengaluru lately, bringing welcome relief after temperatures had crossed 40 degrees earlier in the week.

For now, at least, Raipur seems more than happy to play host - and RCB, equally happy to embrace the hospitality.

Shashank Kishore is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo

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