THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After a low turnout of spectators for the cricket match between India and Sri Lanka held on Sunday, Sports Minister V Abdurahiman came under fire from all corners. The Opposition Congress, CPM, CPI and the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) held the minister responsible for the poor response from the spectators. Opposition leader V D Satheeshan called for the resignation of the minister. He said that the minister had insulted the whole Malayalyees by his statement.
Senior CPI leader Pannian Raveendran also blamed the minister for the low turnout at the stadium.”It is also a loss to the state government,” Pannian said in a FB post. Thiruvananthapuram MP Sashi Tharoor termed the minister’s statement as lack of knowledge and said that instead of boycotting the cricket match the people should have boycotted the minister.
CPM Kannur district secretary M V Jayarajan criticised Abdurahiman for the latter’s remark against a section of the spectators. Meanwhile,the KCA also come out against the minister. Jayesh George, the president of KCA said that it was the people’s response towards the minister’s remark that caused the low turnout.
He added that KCA had submitted a report to the BCCI saying that festivals and the school exams had caused the low turnout. “We could not blame our government and the minister in front of the BCCI”, he said.
The lone consolation for Abdurahiman came from the CPM state secretary M V Govindan who pointed out that there were other reasons for the low turnout. Minister MB Rajesh had on the other hand justified the local self government department’s decision of increasing the entertainment tax for the ticket. “Do not try to put the responsibility on the government,” he said.