Doesn’t look like a confusing title? It is, but this is one reality in Maharashtra where all polity talk about how the present version of IPL is haunting the demos of drought facing state. There have been heated talks all over news channels about logic and counter-logic of hosting cricket matches in Maharashtra. While the social & political leaders vouching for shifting of venues, cricket experts are against it for the reason that it will mar league financially.
The present situation has seen people reaching out to court which has refused to step in to direct the IPL Governing Council to shift the first match elsewhere. In a statement by the division Bench of Justice VM Kanade and MS Karnik who were hearing the PIL filed by NGO Loksatta Movement and others, said that it was too late for the first match to be shifted elsewhere as all the arrangements were already in place. Also, it left the final decision on the organizers if they felt the matches could be shifted out of Maharashtra.
In wake of the situations, BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur is scheduled to meet the Maharashtra based franchises to discuss the issue out. In this meeting, the BCCI Secretary will have to talk about two key issues: on shifting the venues to other states or buying the water required for the stadium preparation.
The reason behind all these hullaballoos is the fact that it requires around 60,000 liters of water every day to maintain the standard of pitch- which the supporters of shifting claim that with IPL shifted to other venues, Maharashtra can save this amount of water which can be used for domestic purpose by the people. On the other hand, the cricket experts are crying foul on this demand and they criticized the local authorities which did know about the two things: of the drought and of the IPL 2016 matches. In a calculation, Maharashtra will have around 20 matches plus the opening ceremony 52 days which means not lesser than 30 days of watering of stadiums, which adds on to be 1,800,000 liters of water. This amount of water can support a good number of households which is getting very less water for their daily or weekly consumption. The IPL authorities will have to decide whether they are ready for an expensive decision or they are going to wait for the court’s decision before making a decision.
In the meantime, Mumbai is hosting the first match between Mumbai Indians & Rising Pune Supergiants tonight to start the proceedings after a glitzy mix of Bollywood & cricket at the Wankhede yesterday to celebrate the opening of this high profile cricketainment.