BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla on Sunday said at least half of the matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2014 would be played outside India. At a press conference, Mr. Shukla said, “At least half of the IPL 2014 matches will be played outside India due to General Elections. Discussions are going on about South Africa, Bangladesh and United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the prospective alternate venues. The final decision will be taken on March 5 and we hope the election dates will be announced by then”.
Mr. Shukla who is also the Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, defended the UPA government on allegations of corruption. “The scams came to light only when the UPA government decided to act on it. In 2G scam and the coal scam, same policies were implemented by the NDA government but no one raised doubts about it. But our government took stern action on these scams which was the reason the issue of corruption came into public domain,” claimed Mr. Shukla.
He denied that there was an atmosphere in the country against the Congress party and said that the veracity of the opinion polls predicting Congress downfall, should be investigated. “In 2004, no one predicted that the UPA would come to power, same was the case in 2009. But the results are there for you to see,” stated Mr. Shukla.
He blamed non-cooperation from the Opposition for the government’s failure to get some key Bills passed.
