With the Telangana agitation posing serious security concerns, the Indian Premier League on Saturday decided to move all of Deccan Chargers' home games from Hyderabad to Nagpur and Mumbai. Hyderabad was scheduled to host seven matches featuring Deccan, the defending champions.
On his Twitter page, IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi said Mumbai's DY Patil Stadium will host the team's tournament opener on March 12. The next three games, on March 19, 21 and 28, will be played at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur. The team will be back at the DY Patil Stadium for the final three games, on April 5, 10 and 12.
The move to shift matches out of Hyderabad comes despite assurances of foolproof security by the state government. A couple of days ago, the state's Sports Minister had called on Deccan to pull out of the cash-awash tournament if any of their home games were shifted out.
The Telangana agitation has already robbed the state of a lot of cricket action. An India-Sri Lanka ODI last year was shifted out of Visakhapatnam due to the volatile security situation. Spectators were kept out during the first two days of the Duleep Trophy final between West Zone and South Zone in Hyderabad because of similar fears. The IPL had earlier moved the opening ceremony out of Hyderabad to Mumbai. PTI
