A political dispute in India over relations with Sri Lanka has spilled over into the country's national pastime: cricket.
We told you last week about a key ally of India's ruling coalition withdrawing its support to the government over neighboring Sri Lanka's conduct against ethnic Tamils during the bloody civil war in that country. On Tuesday, the Indian Premier League cricket tournament, one of the world's top-paying sporting events, announced it won't feature any Sri Lankan players in games played in the southern city of Chennai. The league attracts the best players from the world's top cricketing nations.
Chennai is the capital of Tamil Nadu state, whose Tamil population has linguistic and cultural links to Sri Lanka's Tamils. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the political party that withdrew support from India's ruling coalition last week, is the main opposition party in the southern state.
This week, Tamil Nadu's ruling party joined the fray. The ruling party is the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, and it is a bitter rival of the DMK. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha Jayaraman, who heads the ruling party, wrote to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday, telling him she won't allow Sri Lankan players to play in IPL matches in the state.
Here's an excerpt from her letter (h/t: Live Mint):
"In view of the popular antipathy and anger in Tamil Nadu against the actions of the government of Sri Lanka, the government of Tamil Nadu is of the view that IPL matches involving Sri Lankan players, umpires and other officials should not be played in Tamil Nadu."