CHENNAI: Even as the political heat is being ratcheted up in Tamil Nadu on account of the Centre’s delay in setting up the Cauvery Management Board (CMB), as directed by the Supreme Court, it comes as no suprise that the IPL matches will go ahead in the city as scheduled.
Chennai Super Kings is slated to meet Kolkata Knight Riders at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Tuesday, marking the return of IPL to the city after two years.
Even as Tamil cinema superstar Rajinikanth termed the decision to host IPL matches in the state capital an “embarrassment”, The Hindu reports that the games will not be shifted to any other venue.
The report is significant as rumours were floating Sunday that some of the early CSK matches could be moved to Kerala.
Meanwhile, the state association is going ahead with all the arrangements for staging the matches. The tickets are already sold out.
On the Cauvery issue Rajinikanth, who recently announced his intention to join politics and form his own party, added that the players and fans should sport black armbands to protest the delay in setting up the CMB.
Rajinikanth, along with fellow actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan as well as a host of other celebrities protested at Chennai’s Valluvar Kottam on Sunday over the Centre’s delay in setting up the CMB. Rajinikanth added that any further delay from New Delhi would earn Tamil Nadu’s wrath.
“There has already been a delay,” said Rajinikanth, whose party has plans of contesting all 234 seats in the next assembly election in Tamil Nadu.
When Chennai Super Kings host Kolkata Knight Riders at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday, it will be the first IPL match to take place in the city in three years. The franchise, along with Rajasthan Royals, had been suspended from the league in 2016 for a period of two years after their owners were found guilty of involvement in corruption, with Rising Pune Supergiant and Gujarat Lions taking their place for two seasons.
CSK has lifted the IPL trophy twice, in 2010 and 2011.
