It was not quite the fairytale return that thousands of fans had hoped for.
Banned from the Indian Premier League (IPL) for two seasons soon after their loss in the 2015 final, the whistle-podu (blow-the-whistle) crowd had waited a long time for this step on the road to redemption: A first Chennai Super Kings (CSK) home game in nearly three years.
But in India, where an event like the IPL attracts millions of eyeballs, opportunistic politicians and chancers are never far behind. The state of Tamil Nadu has been engaged in a water-sharing dispute with Karnataka for decades now. The formula advocated by India’s Supreme Court has yet to be implemented. Now, fringe elements in Tamil Nadu politics and actors looking to fill the void left by the death of J Jayalalitha — actress-turned-politician — have decided that the IPL should become a vehicle for publicizing their grievances over the distribution of the Cauvery river’s water.
On Tuesday evening, the no-IPL crowd were out in force on Anna Salai, forcing several of the roads leading to the MA Chidambaram Stadium to be barricaded. More than 4,000 police encircled the venue even as the disgruntled launched black balloons and tried to rough up fans going to the game. One of those to feel the brunt of their anger was Saravanan, the Chennai super fan who spends hours painting himself all in yellow.
A few found their way on to the terraces as well. It is another measure of the pernicious role that petty politics plays in Chennai’s cricket that three of the biggest stands remained empty, a lockdown that has now lasted a half-decade because of a planning-and-permission dispute with the authorities.
The thugs that made their way in did not even spare the players. Chennai’s Faf du Plessis, the South Africa captain, wasn’t in the XI, and on his way round the boundary, he was stunned to see a shoe thrown in his direction from one of the upper tiers.
For the genuine fans, it took the sheen off an otherwise memorable night, with Chennai sealing a last-ditch victory in patented fashion. If Old Trafford had Fergie Time for two decades, they have Dhoni time here, though the captain did not help the cause with a treacle-slow 28-ball 25.
“These two years were like 20 for the fans,” said Subramaniam Badrinath, who played two Tests for India and spent half a decade in the colors of his hometown franchise. “The brand of cricket that Chennai played over the years was phenomenal and it created a strong connect. Now that the team has come back, the fans are really excited.”
One of the biggest ones was not there, though he fully intends to grace Chepauk soon. “Watching the IPL hasn’t been the same without CSK,” said Kausthub Swaminathan, a 19-year-old confined to a wheelchair with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. “I love the core group of players and their team spirit as a whole.”
Kaustubh’s favorite, Ravichandran Ashwin, has left to captain Kings XI Punjab, and he hopes the franchise gives more thought to fans like himself. “The main thing is making the stadium wheelchair-friendly,” he said. “I hope to get the comparatively hassle-free experience others do. Our views not being obstructed by people in front of us standing at every crucial moment of a match, for example.”
For him, and thousands of others, Dhoni remains an object of both awe and affection, despite his waning powers. Though the crowd got restive as their hero scratched around, those struggles were quickly forgotten as England’s Sam Billings made a stroke-filled and game-changing 56 to the accompaniment of “We want sixer” chants.
And when Dwayne Bravo came out in the penultimate over, having helped win the first game in Mumbai, the chants of “Bravo, Bravo” nearly matched the noise that greeted Dhoni. The sea of yellow was only relatively calm when Kolkata’s Andre Russell went ballistic, thwacking a couple of sixes on to the stadium roof and beyond.
It would be a real travesty if the IPL was deprived of that spine-tingling atmosphere because some cynical elements see the league as a soft target.
“If BCCI shift venues because of the issues surrounding today’s match, it will be heartbreak as for the first time special seats are available in #Chepauk for the disabled with wheelchair access,” tweeted Kaustubh during the game.
For him and the thousands who went home with broad smiles, and even tears of joy, on their faces, this was so much more than just a match. Those with nothing better to do than fling footwear are incapable of understanding that.
* The BCCI announced on Wednesday afternoon that it would be shifting the rest of Chennai's home matches to an other venue
