Mumbai Indians and Pune Supergiants pledge 5 crores to CM relief fund

The Mumbai Indians and the Rising Pune Supergiants teams have agreed to cough up Rs. 5 crores each towards the Chief Minister Relief Fund. The money is reported to supply almost 40 lakh litres of water to the drought-hit Marathwada region of the state. Earlier reports suggested that the CM of the state ‘didn’t mind’ moving the IPL matches out of the state due to the shortage of water.

19 of the IPL matches are to be played either in Mumbai or Pune and the BCCI had suggested a lot of reforms that would indeed keep the matches in the state. A petition hearing in the Bombay High Court saw the BCCI attempt to avoid the matches from being shifted out of the drought-hit state.

“Latur won’t get water even if we shift the matches out of the state,” the lawyer representing the BCCI told the court.

Earlier, the Kings XI Punjab had agreed to move the matches scheduled to be played in Nagpur to Mohali or elsewhere due to the water issues. However, as of today, the Punjab franchise seem to have a change of heart as they have dismissed the reports suggesting the same and are hoping that the suggestions made by the BCCI would be acceptable by the Maharashtra High Court.

The court initially had given the BCCI permission to play the match in Mumbai. However, now, it seems as though 8 matches in Mumbai, 9 in Pune and 3 in Nagpur may have to be moved out due to the water crisis.

Rafiq Dada, the legal counsel for the BCCI released a statement saying that the organization had provided the cricketing venues with 4 million litres of water. In addition, Dada also said that the there was a tie-up with the Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) to procure treated sewage for matches to be played in Mumbai and Pune. Seven-eight tankers of treated sewage water are reportedly provided to the stadium hosting the IPL matches on a daily basis.

A Mumbai based NGO, Loksatta Movement had initially filed a complaint regarding the water usage for the IPL matches at the Bombay High Court when certain parts of the state were hit by severe drought.

What did the High Court order? – IPL 9 matches in May to be moved out of Maharashtra