Zeecric Bureau
Nagpur: The political crisis in Andhra Pradesh hit cricket on Monday with the BCCI deciding to shift the second ODI between India and Sri Lanka from Visakhapatnam to Nagpur.
The match, scheduled for December 18, will now be held in Nagpur.
“The second ODI of the five-match series between India and Sri Lanka has been shifted to Nagpur. The match will be a day-night affair, and will be played on the scheduled date of 18 December 2009,” BCCI secretary N Srinivasan said in a statement.
The BCCI had been mulling over the issue since past week as there has been protests in Visakhapatnam over Centre’s plans to divide the state and create separate Telangana with Hyderabad as its capital.
Students and people’s organisations in Vizag are up in arms against the division and had resorted to violence.
Sensing trouble, even the city police commissioner N Sambasiva Rao had opined against the ODI and expressed his inability to provide adequate security.
“The prevailing situation is such that all the city police are deployed in the maintenance of regular law and order. And to conduct the match in ordinary circumstances we need to deploy 80 percent of the city force
“We have mentioned it to organising locals here that it not possible for us to commit any amount of force for the conduct of the match at this stage,” Rao told reporters in Visakhapatman.
Saurashtra Cricket Association which is hosting Tuesday’s series-opener in Rajkot had also offered to host the match.
India will play a five-match one day international series against Sri Lanka, which will start on Tuesday at Rajkot.
First Published: Monday, December 14, 2009, 11:46