Cauvery Protests : All IPL 2018 Matches In Chennai To Be Shifted, Pune New Venue

Picture Courtesy : Hindustan Times

Cauvery protests has finally hit the IPL 2018. Amidst raging protests by all parties all IPL matches scheduled to be held in Chennai, are to be shifted to another venue over the Cauvery water issue, says the BCCI. This means that Chennai Super Kings will no longer have the home crowd advantage . Chennai’s loss will be Pune’s gain. The men in yellow will now play all their remaining  IPL 2018 home matches in Pune .

“CSK will be asked to move their home matches to Pune as the Chennai police has expressed their inability to  provide adequate security for the remaining matches,” IPL Chairman Rajeev Shukla told reporters.

Massive protests have been witnessed across Tamil Nadu in the run-up to IPL with pro-Tamil groups alleging that the tournament was a way of diverting attention from the issue of establishing the Cauvery Management Board. Several political parties too have come together in demanding that the Centre establishes Cauvery Management Board. Scenes of angry demonstrations often degraded to clashes with police officials with rail and road traffic in several cities of the state being disrupted.

Pro-Tamil groups like Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi (TVK) and a newly launched forum of Tamil directors had given a boycott call of the popular Indian Premier League. They alleged that the game was being organised to divert attention from the raging Cauvery protests across the state.

Protesters burnt yellow jerseys, the attire of Chennai Super Kings players, while two activists belonging to a pro-Tamil outfit threw slippers into the ground when the Chennai Super Kings-Kolkata Knight Riders match was in progress at the M A Chidambaram Stadium, police said.

The slippers fell near CSK fielder Ravindra Jadeja who was fielding at long-on. The incident occurred when the eighth over was in progress with the Kolkata Knight Riders batting.