BCCI may ask IPL teams to keep Sri Lankan players out of Chennai matches

CHENNAI: Politics and sports have been strange bedfellows. The unrest in Tamil Nadu over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue has sparked off apprehensions about the Indian Premier League matches in Chennai next month.

BCCI sources said it was considering asking IPL teams to keep Sri Lankan players out of matches in Chennai. However, it has ruled out any threat to Sri Lankan cricketers saying that it there are problems they would be dealt with at that time.

“There is no threat to the IPL. Matches will take place at the scheduled venues. Till now, we haven’t seen any threat,” IPL Commissioner Rajiv Shukla told reporters on Tuesday. Eight of the nine IPL teams, participating in the series beginning on April 3, have Sri Lankan players.

Chennai is scheduled to host 10 matches in IPL VI. BCCI is also making back-up plans by keeping stadia in four cities free in the event of shifting a match out from one of the scheduled venues.

With political parties in Tamil Nadu up in arms against Sri Lanka, BCCI is anticipating protests against Lankan players. Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa had last month decided to cancel the Asian Athletics Championships to be held in Chennai in July, saying Lankan players had no place in the state.

There are 13 Sri Lankan players with Mahela Jayawardene as captain of the Delhi team.



The other players from Sri Lanka are Akila Dananjaya and Nuwan Kulasekara (Chennai team), Jeevan Mendis (Delhi), Sachithra Senanayake ( Kolkata), Lasith Malinga (Mumbai), Ajantha Mendis and Angelo Mathews (Pune), Kusal Janith Perera (Rajashthan), Muthaiah Muralitharan and Thilakaratne Dilshan (Bangalore) and Kumar Sangakkara and Thisara Perera (Hyderabad).