The announcement to shift the Indian Premier League (IPL) final out of the city to Hyderabad has left several fans of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) franchise extremely disappointed. Three stands at the stadium are not yet open to the public and hence the decision to move the match out of Chepauk, according to news reports.
CSK has, so far, had a good run and are on top of the points table(as on Monday evening). Every match that CSK has played at the M.A. Chidambaram stadium has had several fans throng the venue to support the team.
“Not just the matches, many of us even filled up the stands for the CSK practice matches. Fans would queue up hours in advance and we were excited about the prospect of catching an IPL final here with CSK playing,” said A.R.R. Sriam, a member of the CSK Whistle Podu Army, a registered fan club of the team.
For fans like Poornima Iyer, who watched the matches for the first time this year at Chepauk, the atmosphere had been thrilling. “I saw CSK play two matches in Chepauk and had definitely made up my mind to see the finals here since the experience had been amazing,” she said.
Cricket fans said that Chennai would have played the perfect host to any team.
Kowshik S., an analyst, said that the “knowledgeable fan base” in Chennai was known not just for its strong loyalty to CSK. “Any good cricketer irrespective of which team he’s playing for gets massive support from us. This atmosphere would have been perfect for the final of the IPL. Even though CSK has fans across the country, playing on home turf has its added advantages,” he said.
Last year, CSK played just one match in Chennai following which the matches were shifted to Pune for the rest of the season owing to security concerns.
A few fans are now already gearing up to try and catch the finals in Hyderabad if CSK qualify. “Watching the IPL finals in Chennai would have been a great experience and it is disheartening that the venue has been shifted. But we are hoping that CSK does qualify and we somehow find a way to catch the final in Hyderabad,” said P. Sneha, a software engineer from the city.
In the league stage, the city still gets to host three matches where CSK will play against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals.
The city will also be hosting the first qualifier.
