IPL 2018: After protests, business as usual at Chepauk

CHENNAI: Ravindra Jadeja couldn’t believe what was happening. He had just bowled a fine over for Chennai Super Kings and walked down to field at long-off when he had to duck for cover – a pair of shoes came flying at him.
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It had nothing to do with his performance on the field – it was rather a spill-over of the protest over the Cauvery issue outside the stadium that had kept the city police on its toes right through the afternoon.
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The two protesters inside the stadium were immediately arrested and they left the field shouting slogans. It was in addition to the 1200 who had been detained outside the gates for protests before the game. “But the voice of protest inside the stadium was sporadic. It didn’t reflect the mood of festivity among the fans who lapped up the game,” a TNCA official said.
He was partially right. It was a sea of yellow at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Tuesday but there was no way anybody in Kolkata Knight Riders colours could be inside the stadium, unless he was a Shah Rukh Khan, of course. The police had made it clear on Sunday itself that anybody wearing black wouldn’t be allowed inside the stadium and KKR’s deep purple was considered black by policemen who were having a harrowing time trying to control the protesters. “I came in KKR colours but the police told me black was not allowed. My efforts to convince them that my shirt was not black fell on deaf ears,” a KKR fan who is a student in Chennai, told TOI.
Well, it was not just the fans in KKR colours who found it difficult to get into the stadium; there were more important people who faced similar woes. The toss had to be delayed by 13 minutes because the umpires Anil Chaudhary and Chris Gaffaney, along with Match Referee Richie Richardson, couldn’t make it to the ground on time. By the end of the day, things settled down and IPL action finally returned to Chepauk after two years, but not before its share of nerve-wracking tension.