New Delhi: Facing resentment over water being used to maintain cricket pitches for IPL in the drought-hit Maharashtra, BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur will be meeting representatives of Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants to discuss the future course of action here.
The key issue of the meeting is whether there can be a possible shift of venue or whether BCCI can buy water to maintain the pitches.
"The BCCI secretary will be meeting the owners of the two franchises in the evening today as this is a serious issue. The Board needs to be prepared and have a contingency plan ready," a senior BCCI official told PTI on Friday.
Maharashtra has been hit by a severe drought which has led to water shortage in remote areas like Latur and a PIL has been filed in the High Court about the million litres of water required to conduct 20 IPL matches.
While HC has given go-ahead for the first match, there are still doubts over the 19 other matches set to be held in Mumbai, Nagpur and Pune as the observation of bench has been stinging with regards to the fact that people in remote areas of Maharashtra are worst sufferers.
State Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has also stated on Friday that he won't mind IPL matches being shifted to other venues.
"Even if IPL is shifted from Maharashtra this season, we do not have any problem. No potable water will be provided for IPL this season," Fadnavis said.
It will be interesting to see what are the venues outside Maharashtra where these two franchises can set base, in case matches are required to be shifted.
Ranchi, Chennai, Cuttack, Kochi, Kanpur are some of the options. Also venues like Raipur, where only two matches are to be held can be requested to arrange a few more games.
