India, NZ teams to arrive Hyderabad for 2nd Test

Hyderabad: India and New Zealand cricket teams would arrive here on Tuesday afternoon by a special charter flight from Ahmedabad for the second Test beginning November 12, Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) president Arshad Ayub said on Monday.

The teams would resume practice from Wednesday. This will be the first time since 1988-89 that the HCA would be hosting a Test match and it will also be the first at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium at Uppal. The stadium made its ODI debut in 2005-06 against South Africa. Replying to a query, Ayub said he does not foresee any trouble during the match from Telangana groups who have protested against alleged under-representation of Telangana youth in the Hyderabad team and also HCA.The Telangana groups also wanted removal of non-Telangana players and Ranji coaches like S L Venkatapathy Raju from HCA.The state police have promised to provide adequate security for the event, Ayub said. Raju and batting coach Vivek Jaisimha have, however, quit on moral grounds due to the team’s dismal performance against Rajasthan last week. Ayub also said the sale of tickets would begin from tomorrow at branches of UCO Bank and e-Seva centres (multi-purpose citizen service centres run by state government) at various places in the city. PTI