India is currently into the third phase of lockdown as the coronavirus cases are rapidly growing in the country. Meanwhile, the Central Government has allowed the state governments to open liquor shops in order to generate revenues, and the pictures of people queuing up outside the stores across the nation went viral.
The southern state Karnataka witnessed a massive jump in the sale of alcohol. The Excise Department revealed that liquor worth Rs 45 crore had been sold in the shops across the state, including Bengaluru city till 7 PM, on the first day of re-opening of liquor shops after being shut for over a month. As per the Excise Department, 3.9 lakh litres of beer and 8.5 lakh litres of Indian-made liquor was sold on the first day.
Taking note of the incident, Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) has taken a cheeky dig on their south India rivals Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) over liquor sales in the city. As the liquor restrictions have continued in Chennai, CSK taunted RCB throughout the year’s performance in the cash-rich league and accepted an occasional defeat concerning sales of liquor.
So much chatter about Chennai competing with Bangalore vis-à-vis liquor sales. With the latest announcement, we are glad we lost that match even before it began, for battles in the present universe are more important. #COVID #TASMAC 🦁💛
— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) May 5, 2020
The IPL 2020 was scheduled to get off the ground on March 29 with a match between arch-rivals CSK and Mumbai Indians (MI). On the other hand, RCB’s opening match was originally intended to start against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on March 31.
However, the much-awaited IPL 2020 season couldn’t begin as the deadly Coronavirus impacted the entire world heavily. Due to which, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was forced to postpone the 13th edition for an indefinite time.