IPL matches turn easy money spinners

CHENNAI: With great IPL action comes great local marketability. While it is debatable whether the erstwhile Commissioner of the cricket league, Lalit Modi, ever thought that the spin-off businesses from the T20 extravaganza would extend to leasing one’s portico for parking space, there are a few industrious residents who live off Bells Road who look forward to the IPL season, beyond the sport.
Usually people who arrive late for the match, try to save some time by dumping their bikes outside people’s homes on the narrow streets opposite the MA Chidambaram stadium, so that they can enter faster. However, during last year’s IPL, a few of these late-comers were shocked when residents there asked them to cough up a ‘parking fee’. But there’s a whole lot more behind this, than meets the eye.

“Earlier, there used to be big matches only once in  two to three years. After the IPL started in 2008, every summer we have no peace in the evening,” says Mohammed Gaffur, a father of four young women, who lives on Parthasarathy street. With the noise of 35,000 of the loudest people in Chennai, the sentiment is understandable. Walking down Mosque street and Sydoji street, most residents have just one thing against the IPL — “people park in front of our houses and mansions, leaving us trapped or spaceless”. Some like R Sridharan, have found an effective way to counter it, “Last year, just to make sure no one parked here I stood and sternly said that there was a parking fee of Rs 30. Initially they went further down, but the next match on, some of them just paid and kept their vehicles. It was the easiest money I’ve made,” he smiles.
Parking has always been a bone of contention for every spectator. And mind you, this is something that dates back almost two decades. S Anthony, an avid cricket fan who is now 84, recounts how when he went with his colleagues to watch the India-Australia match in the 1987 at Chepauk, the TN Cricket Association (TNCA) staff insisted that they leave their mopeds near the Buckingham Canal or on the opposite side. “We were really scared that the mechanics would do away with our battery and chain on the TVS-50. When India were bowled out one run short, we were absolutely lost,” he recalls sadly.
From then on, not much has changed, really. Even now, no matter how expensive a car or bike you use, unless you have an entry pass from the TNCA or the Madras Cricket Club,you have to ‘slum’ it outside the stadium, looking for a safe spot to park.
As far as the traffic police are concerned, the same arrangements for parking as last year, have been made again. “We are providing parking space at Victoria Hostel, the inner lane along the Marina beach and a few other places. Besides this, the usual one-way rules on Bells Road will apply during match time,” explains Sanjay Arora, Additional CoP, Chennai City Traffic Police.
While all of these are quite a long walk away, there is one easy parking solution — the Chepauk MRTS station parking lot. Usually deserted, this is probably the only time of year when the attendants get to refuse vehicles on account of being full. Only downside? Reportedly, the later you arrive, parking for a four hour match can cost you up to Rs 120.