Chief Minister of Tamilnadu writing a letter to the PM expressing apprehensions about the participation of Lankan players in Chennai and the eventual decision by the BCCI stating that there would not be any Lankan players in matches to be played in Chennai is up on the prime time debate everywhere. Much has been debated by the national media houses and sports observers about this move on how lame it is. Keeping all those arguments aside, I am cynical about two persons who might not be directly involved in this debacle -One Mr.N.Srinivasan and the other Mr.Kalanithi Maran.
The question on Mr.N.Srinivasan , being the MD of Indian Cements which owns the Chennai Super Kings , is about his inclination to aid his side to regain the lost glory by influencing this instant acceptance of the move to curtail Lankan players from coming down to Chennai. Had the BCCI chosen to conduct the games elsewhere as it chose to move out of AP in the wake of Telengana protests, it would have been a fair call. They cannot honestly suggest revenue loss for not moving it to another venue. The morality of BCCI is questionable. You must remember that in spite of assurance by the state govt to provide top security, IPL pulled out of AP. When the chief minister of TN gives out an open statement about the highly charged up and volatile situation, the BCCI still wants to go ahead. You must also remember some of the knock-out matches are also scheduled to be played in Chennai which if other teams make up to would be playing without some of their important players from Lanka.
Second is the Maran brothers’ association with DMK. It would be very silly to ask if there is any. It is quite a blatant political stunt from DMK passing resolutions and protesting against SL demanding Indian Govt’s attention and action on the issue, when it does not even want to talk, leave alone cutting ties, anything about the Sun group owning Sunrisers Hyderabad which interestingly has Kumar Sankagara as its caption. And even more interesting is the tale of Spicejet which offers flight services to Columbo, may be to boost the protests there? After all, it is business you see.
They might tweak the infamous quote to – All is fair in love, war and politics. I know the eventual answer “Don’t mix politics and sports” would be spelled out loud by them. And that is the biggest irony.
Bubblebomb 