Maharashtra IPL matches under scanner again.
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Friday once again picked on the issue of shifting IPL matches from drought-hit pockets of the state in case there was water shortage.
Cricket pitches and the ground have to be watered regularly to prepare them for international matches.
A Division Bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Vibha Kankanwadi on Friday asked the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to furnish a statement saying it will not organise any match in future if Maharashtra reels under water scarcity.
This comes nearly a year after the court forced IPL matches out of the state.
Justice Oka made this observation after the BCCI had moved an application before the Bench seeking its deletion from the list of respondents and praying that the petition be disposed of.
Justice Oka responded, “We want you (BCCI) to make a statement that if in future, the problem of water scarcity once again hits the state, then you would not hold any IPL match.” The BCCI’s counsel refused to make such a statement, arguing that the pledge should come from the government.
“We do not maintain or water the pitches and also do not own the stadiums.
It is the corporations and the government that supply water for maintenance of pitches,” the BCCI counsel argued.
Irked by this, Justice Oka observed, “We would then direct the government and the corporations not to supply water during the problem of water scarcity in future.” In April last year, another Bench headed by Justice Vidyasagar Kanade had directed the BCCI and other cricket bodies to shift all IPL matches out of the state.