Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Sports Minister has urged the Deccan Chargers to boycott the Indian Premier League (IPL) if the team’s matches are not held in Hyderabad.
K Venkata Reddy has a written a letter to the team saying that the agitation for a separate Telangana state would not endanger their security.
"I have also written a letter to BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) president to hold all IPL matches in Hyderabad as scheduled," said Reddy.
The IPL last month decided to move the opening ceremony and the inaugural match between local franchise Deccan Chargers and Kolkata Knight Riders, scheduled to be played here March 12, to Mumbai in view of the unrest for a separate state of Telangana.
The state government has claimed that the decision was unilateral and was taken despite the assurance that it would provide security.
The continuing protests over demand for statehood to Telangana, which comprises 10 districts including Hyderabad, have also put a question mark on four other matches scheduled here.
Though convenor of the all-party Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) M. Kodandaram has also written letters to BCCI and IPL officials to hold the inaugural ceremony and all matches here as scheduled, a section of students of Osmania University has threatened to disrupt the matches.
The IPL moved the opening ceremony and inaugural match after pro-Telangana activists forced play between Hyderabad and Andhra in the Deccan T-20 Cup at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium to be abandoned.
The BCCI has also shifted two women's one-day matches between India and England to Visakhapatnam and Bangalore, originally scheduled to be held here this month end.
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