Hyderabad, November 05: Akin to gross injustice meted out to Telangana in all sectors, the region was totally neglected even in the cricket field and the Hyderabad Cricket Association was filled with the non-locals, claimed the recently formed Telangana Cricket Joint Action Committee.
Talking to mediapersons here, the TCJAC convener, Mr Jimmi Babu, has said that there was an imperative need to revitalise the game in the region. Mr Babu said that though the Hyderabad Cricket Association was formed for grooming sportsmen in the region since its inception, the Telangana region could not get adequate representation for obvious reasons. All the HCA members, including its secretary, coach and players of Hyderabad Ranji Team were non-locals, he pointed out.
Referring to the cricket clubs in the Telangana region, Mr Jimmi Babu said that although there were 216 clubs in the region, there was one club each in all the 10 districts and the remaining 206 clubs were in Hyderabad alone. They did not care to do anything to develop the sport in the region as all the clubs were dominated by the non-locals. Despite persistent demands from the local players to increase the number of clubs at the district level, he said that no appropriate step was hitherto taken in this regard.
Mr Jimmi Babu has demanded that clubs should be established at the mandal and divisional levels. Referring to the lowest-ever score of just 21 runs registered by the Hyderabad Team against Rajasthan in a recent match, he observed that it stands testimony to the dirty politics resorted to by the non-local members of HCA. It was because of ignoring the local talent and selecting non-locals yielding to pressure from the affluent sections, the worst has happened, he bemoaned.
Speaking on the occasion, the OU student leader, Mr Pidamarthi Ravi, demanded that all the probables of the Hyderabad Ranji Team should include 21 members from the region for its next match against Tripura scheduled to take place from November 17. He also warned that they would be constrained to disrupt the Uppal match as well as the test match against New Zealand scheduled to be held from November 12 if the demand was not conceded. He also demanded that the alleged irregularities that had taken place with regard to the Uppal cricket stadium be probed. Besides, the Uppal stadium should be rechristened after the legendary Gond tribal leader Komuram Bheem.
Mr Pullarao Yadav, TCJAC co-chairman, Mr Perella Koti, OUJAC convener and Mr Pendyala Vikram, co-convener, TCJAC, also spoke.
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