Hyderabad, February 11: The Andhra Pradesh government is mounting pressure on home team and reigning champions Deccan Chargers to boycott the third edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) if no matches were played in Hyderabad.
Citing security concerns owing to the pro-Telangana agitation, the IPL organisers have shifted the inaugural match, which was to be played between Deccan Chargers and Kolkata Knight Riders in the city on March 12, to Mumbai.
Sources in the government said the remaining four matches scheduled to be held in the city, too, have been moved out though there was no official announcement from the IPL on the matter.
Sports Minister Komati Venkat Reddy said, “The government has taken a serious view of the IPL’s decision.
We had assured the organisers of foolproof security arrangements, but they did not trust us.”
“This is an insult to us. We have requested Deccan Chargers not to play in the IPL if the inaugural match and the remaining matches are shifted out of Hyderabad,” he added.
When told that the city police and Intelligence Bureau had expressed their inability to provide adequate security during the matches, Reddy declined to comment.
In a report to the state government and Union Home Ministry, the state police had refused to guarantee peaceful conduct of the two matches that were to be played in Vizag.
The IPL managers had met Chief Minister K Rosaiah as well as leaders of other parties in this regard.
Sources in the state home department said that while the state government said it would provide adequate security, Telangana Rashtra Samiti leader K Chandrasekhara Rao did not guarantee that there will be no trouble.
The organisers also met the Joint Action Committee on Telangana, who asked them to consider the situation in the state and decide on their own.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister K Rosaiah has demanded a detailed report on the security situation in the state. Governor ESL Narsimhan, too, is learnt to have sought a report from the Director General of Police as to why the IPL has decided to cancel the matches in the city.
—–Agencies