The Indian Premier League (IPL)’s decision to retain Chennai as a venue and pull out the 13 Lankan players from matches at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium during its sixth edition beginning on Wednesday has led to a blatantly unfair situation.

IPL Chairman Rajeev Shukla’s assertion that “we can’t change venues at short notice” fails to cut ice as the event has thrice before seen venue-relocations because of political reasons or terror attacks, including moving the whole tournament to South Africa in 2009.

The move also disregards the fact that three of the nine IPL teams are led by Lankan players this year. Eight of the nine teams have Sri Lankans playing for them. Kings XI Punjab is the only team without any Sri Lankan player.

Chennai hosts 10 matches in all, including two knockout matches: Qualifier 1 on May 21 and an Eliminator on May 22.

How the teams will be affected

Chennai Super Kings (CSK): Least affected. Lankan recruits Nuwan Kulasekara and Akila Dhananjaya are unlikely to make playing XI on a regular basis.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Captain Kumar Sangakkara from Sri Lanka will have to be dropped for Chennai game to be played on April 25.

Delhi Daredevils (DD): Led by Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene. Delhi are without Kevin Pietersen and Chris Ryder. They have traded Ross Taylor for Ashish Nehra, increasing Jayawardene’s responsibilities. The team takes in CSK on May 16.

Pune Warriors: Led by Sri Lankan all-rounder Angelo Mathews. So, they will start the Chennai game on April 15 without skipper. Ajantha Mendis too would have been effective on Chennai’s slow pitch.

Mumbai Indians: Will be hampered by absence of Lasith Malinga in their April 5 match.

Rajasthan Royals: Unaffected. Only one Sri Lankan in fringe player Kushal Janith Perera. Their game is on April 22.

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB): Will be without key players Tilakaratne Dilshan and Muttaiah Muralitharan, who is ironically a Tamil, for their April 13 game.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR): Defending champs bought off-spinner Sachitra Senanayke for $625,000 but can manage without him in their April 25 game in Chennai.

Kings XI Punjab: Unaffected. No Lankan players. Their game is on May 2.

KNOCKOUT STAGE:

Assuming three teams are vying for a semi-final slot and one of them faces CSK in Chennai without a key player, it could potentially have an impact on who wins the title.  (By S. Venkat Narayan)

Source: The Islands (Sri Lanka)