No matches in Maharashtra after May 1: SC
In the wake of the ongoing drought, the SC rejected the appeal against the Bombay High Court's ruling on moving the matches out of Maharashtra. According to the SC mandate, no matches will be played in Maharashtra after 1 May. The Maharashtra Cricket Association had registered a joint Special Leave Petition in SC after the Bombay HC had ordered moving out of IPL matches.
The ninth edition of IPL will be played from 9th April to 29th May. This time, the 2 prominent IPL teams- Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals- will not play due to the ban imposed on them for 2 years by the Lodha committee in July 2015. Pune Supergiants and Gujarat Lions based in Pune and Rajkot respectively, will replace these teams
Maharashtra will hold around 19 IPL matches. These matches will be held at Wankhede stadium in Mumbai, MCA International Stadium in Pune and Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur.
60,000 litres of water is used daily to maintain pitches at 3 stadia- Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. According to the petitioner Ketan Tirodkar, 66 lakh litres of water was used for maintaining pitches during 2013 IPL. The High Court has termed this water usage as "criminal wastage". In 2015 alone, more than 3200 farmers had committed suicide due to drought in the state.
The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) will be using 40 lakh litres of water during the 7 matches to be played at Mumbai's Wankhede stadium.
The Mumbai Cricket Association(MCA) has said that they are purchasing the water to maintain the pitches. Moreover, the water which they are using is non-potable and cannot be used for drinking purposes. However, the petitioner claimed that in several villages water is not available even for sanitation and other purposes. The petitioner also informed that Thane will have no water supply from 5-9 April.
The Bombay High Court has admonished the BCCI and the cricket associations in Maharashtra over the expected wastage of water in the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL). Maharashtra is facing severe drought due to the failure of 2 consecutive monsoons. The court also suggested the cricketing bodies to consider shifting of the IPL venues from Maharashtra to some other state not facing water crisis.
BCCI officials claimed that Bombay HC's directive to move the IPL matches from Maharashtra could become a logistical nightmare. BCCI said it takes 3 days to prepare a pitch and preparations had begun a month ago; now only 2 days are left for IPL to begin. Hotels, tickets, ground availability for the 3 teams scheduled to hold matches in Nagpur will also be affected.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis clarified his government's stance on water wastage at the IPL matches, stating that Maharashtra would not provide potable water for IPL matches. He added that "Even if IPL matches are shifted, we have no problem." His statements come in the wake of widespread public debate of the plight of farmers dealing with the drought situation in the state.
The BCCI told the Bombay HC that it has asked the Royal Western India Turf Club(RWITC) to render water from its sewage treatment plant for the 17 IPL matches scheduled to be held in Pune and Mumbai. BCCI said that the RWITC had agreed to give 7-8 tankers from its plant. Moreover, Kings XI Punjab was considering moving 3 matches from Vidarbha to Punjab.
Following Bombay HC's order, the IPL final match has been moved from Mumbai to Bengaluru. The Pune team opted for Vizag as their home venue while Mumbai will announce their venue in 2 days. IPL officials, Pune Supergiants and Mumbai Indians officials decided that the "first qualifier will be held in Bengaluru while Kolkata will host the second qualifier and eliminator."
Bombay HC after hearing the arguments of BCCI, granted permission for the 1st May IPL match to be played at Pune. The court said this was an 'exception'. The BCCI had told HC that the match between Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants could not be shifted in one day. All other IPL matches from April 30 onwards have been shifted out of Maharashtra.
