Bengaluru, March 28: The Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) in collaboration with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Bharathi Cements have taken the initiative to invite 60 soldiers to witness each of the seven IPL matches being played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium from March 28 to May 4, 2019.
KSCA will be sponsoring 20 soldiers while both RCB and Bharathi Cements will sponsor 20 soldiers to witness the home matches.
It may be recalled that the opening ceremony of the IPL 2019 was cancelled while the funds allocated to the ceremony was contributed to the Armed Forces Fund of the Central Government. A military band played a few numbers before the start of the opening game of the IPL 2019 between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings in honour of the Pulwama terror attack victims.
The Chennai Super Kings, led by Dhoni who is a Lt Colonel in Territorial Army, had also announced that they would contribute the revenue from the first match to the Armed Forces Fund. Earlier, the Indian team played the third ODI against Australia at Ranchi in army caps in solidarity with the armed forces but the move had also invited criticisms.