Chennai Super Kings--last year's champions and one of the most successful and loved franchises in IPL, started trending on Twitter right after the completion of the IPL Auctions.  A day after the IPL 2022 Auction, fans took to Twitter to call for a boycott on Chennai Super Kings and it had something to do with the franchise picking Maheesh Theeksana at the bidding event. Sri Lanka's mystery spinner Theeksana was signed by CSK on day 2 of the IPL Auction for a sum of Rs 70 lakhs and after he was roped in by the defending champions, fans took to Twitter to express their disappointment and called for a boycott on the franchise. IPL 2022: Here’s the Likely Playing XI of Each Team for Upcoming Season After the Two-Day Mega Auction

The hashtag '#Boycott_ChennaiSuperKings' started trending on Twitter with over 30,000 tweets as fans criticised the franchise for signing Theeksana, who is of Sinhalese descent. Many alleged that the defending champs had hurt Tamil sentiments by signing a Sri Lankan player for IPL 2022, pointing out the past ethnic violence between the two groups in Sri Lanka, that led to a civil war in the country. As a matter of fact, former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa had barred Chennai Super Kings from signing Sri Lankan players. Theeksana, for the unversed, is also a member of the Sri Lankan army, something that drew more criticism from CSK fans after the franchise signed the player.

See some reactions here:

As of now, there has been no statement or word from Chennai Super Kings, reacting to this development on Twitter. It remains to be seen how this unfolds. Many CSK fans earlier, also slammed the franchise for not bidding for Suresh Raina at the IPL auction as the left-hander, lovingly referred to as 'Mr.IPL' went unsold.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 15, 2022 04:15 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).