Tamil outfits stage protest before Chennai vs Kolkata IPL match

Opposition to IPL matches to be held in Chennai intensified today as outfits agitating over Cauvery issue staged protest outside the MA Chidambaram stadium.

MS Dhoni-led CSK and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), captained by Dinesh Karthik, will lock horns in the first game here at 8 PM today.

Political parties and outfits have been demanded that Indian Premier League (IPL) matches should not be held at a time when the state was witnessing widespread agitations on the vexed issue.

However, the two large Dravidian parties — AIADMK and DMK —have largely kept away from the uproar even as smaller parties with a purely regional focus joined the chorus.

Tamil Nadu has been witnessing protests for the past one week urging the Centre to constitute the Cauvery Management Board (CMB) in compliance with the February 16 order of the Supreme Court on the water sharing dispute with Karnataka.


Meanwhile, security has been stepped up for the players, even as more personnel have been deployed outside the cricket stadium and the hotel where they are put up.

IPL Chairman Rajeev Shukla also met Union Home Secretary Rajeev Gauba over the security. Guaba assured Shukla that appropriate arrangements have been made.

CSK CEO K S Viswanathan said the team's home matches will go on as per schedule.

On February 16, the Supreme Court raised the 270 tmcft share of Cauvery water for Karnataka by 14.75 tmcft and reduced Tamil Nadu's share while compensating it by allowing extraction of 10 tmcft groundwater from the river basin.

The court had granted six weeks time to the Centre to formulate a scheme to ensure compliance of its 465-page judgement on the decades-old Cauvery dispute, which modified the CWDT award of 2007.

The six-week period ended on March.