IPL 2016: Bombay High Court orders BCCI to shift all matches out of Maharashtra after 30th April

The Bombay High Court has directed the BCCI to shift all IPL matches out of Maharashtra after 30th April 2016. 13 matches were scheduled to be played in Maharashtra after 30th April and now as per the orders of the Bombay High Court, the matches will now have to be moved to another venue.

The Bombay High Court must surely have kept in mind the worsening drought conditions at Maharashtra and gave the order. The replacement venues have not been announced yet and it seems that the final will also have to be moved out of the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.

The court also said it would be better to shift the matches outside Maharashtra as the state of the drought in the state is quite pathetic. Hearing a petition filed by Loksatta Movement which challenged the excessive use of water to maintain pitches at three stadiums where IPL matches would be held from April 9, a division bench headed by Justice V M Kanade said it was the state government’s responsibility to impose restraint on the use of water during drought.

Not feasible to shift IPL matches

Earlier, BCCI in its last bid to save the matches at Maharashtra said that the Pune and Mumbai IPL teams are willing to donate Rs 5 crore each for Chief Minister's Relief Fund and supply 40 lakh litres to the drought-hit Marathwada region of the state. They also said that t would not be feasible to shift IPL matches out of Pune.

The BCCI uttered its stand before a bench of Justices V.M. Kanade and M.S. Karnik, hearing a PIL by NGO Loksatta Movement challenging the use of large quantities of water in stadiums at a time when the state was going through severe drought conditions. Also, BCCI’s counsel Rafiq Dada also told the high court that the cricket board is willing to supply over 60 lakh litres of non-potable water to drought-hit areas in Maharashtra at free of cost.

However, all these efforts yielded no benefit as the Bombay High Court ruled against BCCI and ordered the matches to shifted out of the drought-affected state. It will be interesting to see the replacement venues for the matches. BCCI is seriously in a backfoot now as they will have to do all the rescheduling now.

Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants play their home games in the state of Maharashtra and it seems that they will have to have to play some matches on different grounds. Kings XI Punjab also had some matches scheduled at Nagpur. They will have to move out too.

One thing’s for sure that there is nothing bigger than life and with the kind of beleaguered condition the state is in, it is surely a rational move to shift the matches out of the state.