If you are walking on Wallajah Road at about 6 pm, especially on an IPL match day, Chennai’s will find that something unusual is happening in the area near MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Somehow, there was an air of silence from the usually bustling road as Rajasthan Royals played Sunrisers Hyderabad in Qualifier 2 on Friday.
This is perhaps the place with the highest number of sporting merchandise and clothing stores in the city; yet, it looks deserted now.
One could see heaps of yellow unsold jerseys in front of the shops that remind one about how many businesses have been affected by this current state of affairs.
No one bothered to buy counterfeit jerseys from street vendors. The cops were happy to see reduced traffic moving through ‘closed’ eyes.
Welcome to “Thala-Land” on IPL day. However, it wasn’t a high-stakes IPL game for either ‘Thala’ or his beloved Chennai’s Super Kings.
CSK and that buzz starts from 4 pm on a 7:30 pm match day are now part of Chennai’s sporting identity.
There was always that odd Orange shirt or pink jersey slowly limping towards Chepauk gates.
“Macha, I have never missed a CSK match. I had three extra tickets but nobody wanted them. So my friends and I decided not use our tickets for this Q2 game. We just wanted to cheer for good cricket,” said Arun Pradeep, a CSK devotee.
