By Avilash Panigrhi; Bhubaneswar: Chennai Super Kings will lose their home advantage for the rest of the 2018 season. Pune will host the remaining seven ‘home’ matches of the two-time IPL Champions Chennai Super Kings after it was confirmed earlier in the day that the matches would be moved out of the capital city following the protests surrounding the Cauvery water dispute in several parts of Tamil Nadu.
The IPL has decided to move their remaining home games out of Chennai in the wake of protests during the first match, and threats to disrupt more fixtures. CSK’s home games will be played in Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune instead.
The Pune ground is familiar to CSK captain MS Dhoni and Coach Stephen Fleming, who were part of the Rising Pune Supergiant franchise in 2016 and 2017. The Super Kings already have experience playing home games away from home; four of their home matches were moved to Ranchi in 2014 due to the dispute between Tamil Nadu Cricket Association and the local municipal corporation.
While CSK played their opening home match of the 2018 IPL season against KKR at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai amidst a strong police presence, IPL Chairman Rajeev Shukla stated that it was impossible to carry on playing in Chennai considering the political tension prevailing in the South Indian state.
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