A Tamil Nadu legislator has sought a ban on the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for not selecting players from the state in the current Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023. SP Venkateshwaran, MLA from Dharmapuri, said the CSK was making profits from the people through advertisements but it was not taking players from Tamil Nadu.
Venkateshwaran is a leader from Pattali Makkal Katchi or PMK, a regional party in Tamil Nadu. The party won five seats in the 2021 assembly elections. The leader claimed that the CSK was branded as a Tamil Nadu team, but it lacked talented players from the state. “They are making profits from our people through advertisements projecting it as a Tamil Nadu team, but there are no talented players from our state (in the team),” he was quoted as saying by the news agency PTI.
Venkateshwaran raised the issue during the debate on the demand for grants for the Youth Welfare and Sports Development department in the Assembly.
CSK will face Rajasthan Royals at the M A Chidambaram Stadium on Wednesday. The team is owned by India Cements, and it is captained by former Team India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. CSK has a strong fan base and is known for its consistent performance in the IPL. The team has won the IPL championship four times (in 2010, 2011, 2018, and 2021).
With four league titles, CSK are the second-most successful franchise in the IPL after Mumbai Indians, which have won the trophy five times. According to CricTracker, CSK reportedly got Rs 201.65 crore in media rights revenue during the IPL 2022. Their revenue from media rights will probably go above Rs 400 crore in IPL 2023.
