Mumbai: After receiving the Bombay High Court’s decision to shift 13 Indian Premier League (IPL) matches out of Maharashtra, the league’s chairman Rajeev Shukla on Wednesday said that they would wait for the written judgement by the court before looking for the alternative venues.
The Court had earlier said that they were allowing the BCCI to host the IPL matches in Maharashtra till April 30 after which the rest of the matches must be shifted out of the state.
“We will be studying the judgement. We are yet to get a written judgement. The moment we get that in written, the BCCI president, secretary and other office bearers will be discussing and will be making the alternative plan,” the BCCI functionery told the media here.
Shukla, however, stressed that the board were sympathetic to the farmers of the state, insisting that they were even willing to provide water and financial help to them.
“We respect the honorable High Court. Apart from that we are fully sympathetic to the farmers of Maharashtra and that is why the BCCI has proposed to provide water to the drought-affected areas and the financial help to the Chief Minister’s Relief Funds. All those proposals had been made. Now let me read the order, what exactly judges have written and accordingly we will formulate an alternative plan,” he added.
Earlier in the day, the BCCI had agreed to supply 40 lakh litres of water to the drought-affected areas in the state besides agreeing to contribute Rs. five crore to the Chief Minister’s Relief fund for the same cause.
The High Court was hearing a petition filed by NGO ‘Loksatta Movement’ against the hosting of the IPL matches in Maharashtra, which is facing severe water crisis at the moment.(ANI)