Will the IPL Governing Council shift Chennai's matches to Kochi?

The people of Tamil Nadu, especially the students, have been protesting for social good of Tamil Eelam living in Sri Lanka. As a result of the rage between the two places, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, Ms. J. Jayalalitha had written a letter for Prime Minister insisting the denial of Sri Lankan players’ participation in the matches that are scheduled to be held at Chennai. The IPL Governing council had taken this into consideration and have arrived at a decision that Sri Lankan Players will not be playing at matches in Chennai. “The Governing Council decided that Sri Lankan players will not participate in the Pepsi IPL 2013 League matches in Chennai and will advise the nine franchises accordingly” said Rajiv Shukla, IPL Chairman.

Franchises are disappointed at this decision as out of 13 Sri Lankan players, 2 are captains of their respective sides. They insisted BCCI to drop Chennai as an IPL venue. Meanwhile, considering this as an opportunity, Kerala Cricket Association have come forward and offered to host CSK’s home matches at Kochi. But BCCI didn’t consider this offer.

CSK is a strong team to beat at their home turf. They have literally built a fort in their home ground. In the 4th season, CSK became champions by winning all their home matches. This shows their dominance on home turf. Considering this as context and if the opponent teams miss top players like Malinga in MI, Sangakkara in Hyderabad, Jayawardene in Delhi, they would look so brittle against the mighty Chennai team at Chepauk. So, Chennai doesn’t want to move their home matches away from Chepauk.

When CNN-IBN asked about this to Muralitharan who plays for Royal Challengers Bangalore, he said, ” If IPL asks us not to play, we will not play. Can’t comment as no one from IPL has contacted me yet.“

Meanwhile Siddarth, a well known actor in South India, has shown his support for this move by TN government.

We have neighbours who are under scanners for human rights atrocities. There is nothing wrong in suspending sporting ties temporarily.

— Siddharth (@Actor_Siddharth) March 26, 2013

It is a much known fact that Pakistan players have been ruled out of IPL since second season due to their country’s involvement in 26/11 incident. If Sri Lanka players too get the axe, BCCI’s sporting ties with the neighbouring countries will be severely affected.