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Bitter PIL for IPL

 
Cricket is like a religion to many in the subcontinent but it often becomes a whipping boy in India. The latest scapegoat is the game's biggest brand, the Indian Premier League (IPL), which has been at the receiving end since its inception nine years ago. The pathbreaking event has often waded into troubled waters, including allegations of corruption and, by some purists, of ungentlemanly corrupting the game.
And, now IPL has been made to swallow a bitter PIL. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has put forward an argument, which makes no sense, blaming IPL for the misery of drought-hit farmers in some parts of the country. A Bombay High Court judgement, in response to the PIL, has opened the Pandora's Box and more and more such PILs are being filed in different states. Some people use PIL to gain publicity and sometimes to settle political scores in India. After Maharashtra High Court ordered IPL matches out of the state, in response to a PIL by NGO Loksatta Movement's Surendra Srivastava, there are more such PILs in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
The popular and entertaining annual T20 tournament is needlessly accused of being unsympathetic to India's water crisis. There is no credence to the argument that water used for IPL matches could be useful for the parched villages. In fact, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had assured the court that they would not be using portable water.
Statistically speaking, the three contentious venues in Maharashtra would have used six million litres of water, that too not portable but treated water, which is not fit for human consumption. Six million litres of potable water can cater to three villages, with a population of 1,500, for a month.
The amount of water to be used for maintaining cricket stadiums is calculated, based on international maintenance for pitch guidelines that says that 300,000 litres of water for one match at a one venue to be used.
Ergo, the entire argument of water wastage during IPL cricket matches makes no sense. If there is biggest water guzzler in Maharashtra than it is Sugarcane cultivation. The amount of water (6m litres) 20 IPL matches in Maharashtra would have used would have produced only three tonnes of sugarcane. According to 2013-2014 statistics, Maharashtra produced 75,384,000 tonnes of sugarcane, which would have needed around 158,306,400 million litres of water (75,384,000 x 2.1, It takes 2100 litres of water to produce one kilogram of sugar in Maharashtra. We are not even talking about water parks, swimming pools etc.
As former Indian captain, Rahul Dravid, rightly said water shortage is a serious issue, and the fact that so many farmers are dying in India because of that but linking it to the IPL has trivialise the whole crisis. Like Dravid several other cricketers have spoken against blaming the IPL for not being sympathetic to drought.
A week before IPL started, some of the  ICC World T20 matches were played in the drought affected Maharashtra but no one raised the issue. How can another event of the same sport aggravate the crisis within a matter of few days?
Difficult to fathom but court delivered what looked like a politically correct verdict when the PIL against IPL came up for hearing. There are the other means of water wastage but only IPL got the stick in what looks like a symbolic decision. Otherwise, by the civic body's own admission, Mumbai daily wastes some 900 million litres of water.
IPL generates a huge economic activity and becomes a source of income at different levels. It is not only the rich, who mint money out of IPL but even a small-time hawker outside a stadium earns much more during the event.
The Bombay High Court may have made an example of BCCI's pet event but PILs have started to mushroom against IPL.
No wonder BCCI wants to take their IPL out of India. So, bring it on, Dubai will pamper your brand as it did in 2014.
 sunilvaidya@khaleejtimes.com