Mumbai: The number of obstacles that the organisers of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has to overcome during the tournament — almost every year — that many jokingly address it as ‘Indian Problems League.’ Water issues, negligence of franchises to the state, social activists demands, court orders, all these surface during the league.
India, being such a vast country, makes every team to travel extensively during this league. As if the logistical hassles are not enough, some people enjoy creating obstacles to make life difficult for not only cricketers but also the organisers.
Though majority of Indians are cricket lovers, it seems that a few enjoy throwing some spanner in the works to gain mileage. The weapon that people now use is to file a case on some IPL related matter and it becomes big news.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India, which is run by High Court appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), is now busy finding solutions to most of the problems.
This season, the Bombay High Court has issued a notice to Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) asking about its plans to provide water to the IPL matches to be held at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune in view of the water crisis in the state. The MCA has to reply by April 18 following a Public Interest Litigation filed by NGO Loksatta Movement. Meanwhile, the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai had to inform a court how much of water they plan to use in the stadium during IPL matches.
A water-sharing issue in Chennai has resulted in protesters creating a ruckus at M.A. Chidambaram Stadium during their first home game against Kolkata Knight Riders on April 10. ‘Whistle podu,’ fans of the Chennai team will now be deprived from watching their favourite team play at home as the BCCI has now shifted their remaining matches to Pune.
Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, which is hosting Rajasthan Royals’ home games after quite a few years, are not free of trouble either. A social activist group has found out that there is only one player from the state in the Royals team now and also all the investors of the team are not from this state. They have also protested over Royals’ team taking full control of the stadium from the Rajasthan Cricket Association.
The BCCI’s High Court appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) also had to handle an issue of the Mumbai cricketers and clubs on the passes to watch IPL. So much is the demand for IPL tickets that the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) affiliated clubs have been asked to sign an undertaking that they will not sell any of the IPL complimentary tickets they receive.
It had come to the notice that some clubs were resorting to sell their tickets at huge prices. However, the CoA took a decision to increase the quota of tickets for first class cricketers from just one to two — a decision that has been hailed by the Mumbai cricket fraternity.
