Ravichandran Ashwin urges PM Modi to allow cricketers playing IPL to vote wherever they are

Senior India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin might not be a regular name in the national side for limited-overs cricket but the Tamil Nadu cricketer is a prominent name in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Ashwin has been leading the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) since last year and his team was set to kick off their campaign in IPL 2019 against Rajasthan Royals in an away game in Jaipur on Monday.

The 32-year-old, who last played a T20I in July 2017 but still harbours the hope of donning the blues again, on Monday said that Indian cricketers who will be crisscrossing the nation during the entire summer for the IPL should be allowed to cast their ballots wherever they are on the day when their own constituencies go to polling. The 17th Lok Sabha election will kick off on April 11 and continue till May 19. The results will be declared on May 23. The IPL, which has already started, will be played till May 12.

Ashwin’s suggestion came after Modi appealed to cricketers

The ace cricketer’s suggestion came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi tagged a number of sports personalities – cricketers and others – on Twitter urging him to create polling awareness so that the turnout in the upcoming election is more. Ashwin made his request to PM Modi on Twitter in response to the latter’s tweet.

“I would also like to request you @narendramodi sir to enable every cricketer playing in the IPL to be allowed to cast their votes from which ever place they find themselves at,” he wrote.

I would also like to request you @narendramodi sir to enable every cricketer playing in the IPL to be allowed to cast their votes from which ever place they find themselves at. 🙏

— Ashwin Ravichandran (@ashwinravi99) March 25, 2019

A number of Indian players will remain away from their homes during the long tournament and that might create a problem for them in casting votes. Like Ashwin, who is from a southern state but leading a northern team, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli are also captains who are from eastern and northern India, respectively, but leading teams from the South – Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore, respectively.

Talking about the KXIP’s campaign, they will be looking to be consistent this year, taking a lesson from last year. In 2018, the Kings started off well but ran out of steam midway to crash out of the playoff race eventually.

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