CHENNAI: Hours after the Chamber of Trade and Industry requested sports minister to reschedule Indian Premier League, IPL chairperson Arun Dhumal said they will look into the issue and follow the directives if anything comes from the Government of India.
Earlier, the CTI chairman Brijesh Goyal wrote a letter to sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya demanding him to reschedule the league to cut down on flight travels and limit the matches behind closed doors at a few venues keeping in view the austerity measures announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi due to ongoing West Asia crisis.
"So far, there has not been any communication to BCCI to my knowledge," Dhumal told this daily. "Independent agencies might have their views on certain (things), but we are accountable to the Government of India. If anything comes from the government, we will look into it and certainly adhere to the directions," he added.
Goyal in his letter mailed to the sports minister said that teams would have travelled lakhs of kilometres by air and road during the IPL, which started on March 28, so far. "While every government department, politician, officer, common citizen is trying to avoid wasteful expenditure on the advice of Prime Minister Modi, in these difficult times, IPL is the only event which seems to be untouched by any crisis at the moment," read the CTI's press statement.
Goyal said a new schedule should be issued for the remaining matches of the IPL. "Cutting down on air travel, matches without spectators and at a limited venues will save millions of litres of fuel, petrol and diesel and reduce the burden on the country. Even during the pandemic, the BCCI did the same," Goyal argued.
The CTI chairman, however, said the ministry has not responded to his request yet and he will also mail a letter to the BCCI in this regard on Monday. The CTI's letter claimed that chartered aircrafts such as Boeing 737 or Airbus A 320 are commonly used by IPL teams. "These aircrafts consume on an average around 2400 to 3000 litres of fuel per hour. According to this, if the flight flies for about 2 hours, then the estimated consumption is about 5000 to 6000 litres of aviation fuel. If the aircraft is a little larger or is flying with more weight for longer distances, then this figure can go up to 7000 to 8000 litres. Now, if this fuel expenditure is multiplied by about 10 air journeys of the teams, then it can be said that each team is spending about 50,000 to 70,000 litres of aviation fuel," said the letter.