Chennai: From demanding a ban on Chennai Super Kings (CSK), a franchise team of the Indian Premier League (IPL), for having no Tamil players, to cricketing analogies for Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s “political prowess” — the Gentleman’s game took centrestage in the assembly Tuesday as members of the ruling DMK and Opposition targeted each other.
The cricket banter was part of a larger discussion on demands for grants from the Youth Welfare and Sports Development department, headed by Stalin’s son, Udhayanidhi Stalin.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) MLA S.P. Velumani put forth a demand for IPL tickets for MLAs, saying that his party had done it when it was in power in the state.
Meanwhile, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) MLA S.P. Venkateswaran demanded that the state government ban the “non-Tamil team CSK”.
Udhayanidhi, in a lighter vein, suggested that the demand for tickets be put forth before Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah, who is the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which organises the IPL. “He won’t listen to us,” he said.
While Udhayanidhi’s reply drew applause from DMK members and Stalin, the BJP accused him of playing “divisive politics”.
Addressing the House for close to 50 minutes, Udhayanidhi compared the DMK to a cricket team.
In his childhood, he said, he played cricket with his father as well as his grandfather, the late DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi. “Our team has got coaches like Periyar, Peraringar Anna, Muthamizh Kalaignar (Karunanidhi) and Perasiriyar Anbazhagan.”
Stating that “no other team” has had coaches like the DMK, he said, “Periyar taught us who our opponent is and when and how to fight them. Anna taught us how a team should play keeping in mind the values of unity, duty and dignity. Kalaignar Karunanidhi taught us which ball has to be played and which ball we shouldn’t play.”
Talking about his Stalin’s “cricketing prowess”, on the pitch and off it, Udhayanidhi said, “M.K. Stalin is a good leg-spinner. One can’t bat when he bowls.”
He cited Governor R.N. Ravi’s assent to the state’s online gambling bill and the Union Coal Ministry’s decision to scrap coal block auctions in the Cauvery delta region after the state government’s protests as Stalin’s two most recent sixes.
“Our team captain Stalin is now teaching us when we should play defence and when we should hit a six,” he said. “He recently hit two sixes.”
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DMK vs AIADMK-BJP
Demanding IPL tickets for MLAs, AIADMK’s S.P. Velumani pointed out that his party had made a provision for it when it was in power.
In response, Udhayanidhi asked, “For four years, the IPL didn’t happen in the state, for whom did you get tickets?”
The Amit Shah comment followed. “I bought IPL tickets and gave them to 150 players from my constituency at my own expense,” Udhayanidhi added.
Taking a dig at the BJP’s attempt to make inroads in the state, he said, “Tamil Nadu has a long political history from the time of Chera, Chola and Pandya. Only Tamils have been playing here, no one from the north has been victorious here.”
He further said that the state and its people have been unique that way and added, “Even now, a few are thinking that they can win Tamil Nadu and are making efforts for the same. Their games may succeed in any other state across the country, but not in Tamil Nadu because it has a strong team called DMK and captain M.K. Stalin.”
Speaking to ThePrint, BJP state vice-president Narayanan Thirupathy said the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association is headed by Ashok Sigamani, son of higher education minister K. Ponmudi, and accused Udhayanidhi of “trying to mix politics with everything”. “That is his level of politics,” he added.
He demanded an apology from Udhayanidhi for his remark over “north and Tamils” and accused him of playing “divisive politics”.
Demand to ban CSK
Earlier, raising the IPL issue, PMK MLA Venkateswaran demanded that the state government ban CSK for not having a single player from the state despite Tamil Nadu having so many talented players.
He pointed out that there was a great fan following for the IPL in the state and CSK was making a huge profit off it.
Some of the players from Tamil Nadu who have played for CSK are Palani Amarnath, Anirudha Srikkanth, Arun Karthik, Ravichandran Ashwin, Subramaniam Badrinath, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Chandrasekar Ganapathy, Narayan Jagadeesan, Yo Mahesh, Abhinav Mukund, Vijay Shankar, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan and Murali Vijay.
Arun Karthik, Chandrasekar Ganapathy and Vijay Shankar have played only one match each. Other players like Baba Aparajith and Sai Kishore have made it to the squad in the past.
(Edited by Geethalakshmi Ramanathan)
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