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ShareMumbai: The Shiv Sena on Thursday threatened not to allow Indian Premier League (IPL) matches to be played in Maharashtra if the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) goes ahead with its plan to cancel Deodhar Trophy tournament. The party staged a demonstration in front of the Cricket Centre.
"The BCCI has insulted the pride of Maharashtra by aborting the tournament named after professor DB Deodhar," Sena leader Subhash Desai said. "If the decision is not reversed, Shiv Sena will not allow a single IPL match in the state."
More than 100 Sena workers tried to barge into the BCCI office shouting slogans against the Indian Board. Later they handed over a memorandum to BCCI's chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty. Secretary N Srinivasan refused to comment. "I was told about the demonstration. We have made our programme for the year," he said. He would not say if the Board will change the fixtures.
Shetty told the delegation that the BCCI has not cancelled the tournament and it was a conspiracy by the media. "He assured us that the competition will be held. If that is the case, we have no problem," Desai said.
On Wednesday, BCCI dropped the Deodhar Trophy from its domestic calendar to accommodate the IPL in a crammed schedule. The decision was taken by the Board's Tour, Programmes and Fixtures Committee on .
The Deodhar Tropy is the premier domestic one-day tournament and was named after Prof DB Deodhar, who died aged 101 in 1993. Deodhar had captained Maharashtra in Ranji Trophy from 1939 to 1941. The tournament, among the five zones, has been held every year since its inception in 1973-74.
