Cricket lovers in the State could not have asked for more as the Chief Justice of Madras High Court Indira Banerjee on Monday stressed the need for taking the game closer to the rural masses.
Disposing of a public interest litigation petition filed against conduct of Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) matches at ICL ground in Tirunelveli, she said that the court should not deny the cricket fans of the area an opportunity to witness the league by interfering in such issues without a strong basis.
Leading the First Division Bench of the High Court along with Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana, the Chief Justice also wondered why such cricket matches should be restricted to metropolitan cities and not be held in tier- II cities such as Tirunelveli and Dindigul.
When a counsel representing the petitioner, A.E. Rajan, 34, a local resident, pointed out that the stands in the stadium did not have roof and this could affect the health of youngsters who go to watch the matches, the Chief Justice said that almost all stadiums across the country have some stands without roof and that it was up to the cricket fans to exercise their choice of either watching the match from such stands or not.
“In some places, particularly the place from where I come from (West Bengal), people are cricket freaks. They even climb on trees to watch a match,” the Chief Justice said and wondered how courts could prevent conduct of a match in a particular stadium just because it did not have covered stands.
‘My love for cricket’
Pointing out that people actually buy tickets at a premium price to watch matches, Ms. Justice Banerjee reminisced the days when she used to earn just ₹150 a month and yet spent ₹30 to watch a cricket match.
In so far as the petitioner’s contention that the stadium was situated close to the Madurai-Tirunelveli national highway and there was every likelihood of the crowd spilling over to the highway, the Division Bench said that the petitioner had not produced any material to substantiate his claim though the match was conducted at the same stadium last year too. Nevertheless, in order to ensure the safety of the “cricket lovers,” the Bench directed the Tirunelveli Collector, Superintendent of Police and Tamil Nadu Cricket Association to ensure that bamboo barriers were erected at the gates leading to the highway.
