On May 21, 2016, the ACA-VDCA stadium in Visakhapatnam fell silent for a couple of minutes. More than 30,000 spectators were on the edge of their seats. It was the Indian Premier League match between Rising Pune Supergiants and Kings XI Punjab.
Pune had to score 23 runs in the last over, and it finally boiled down to 12 of the last two balls. And the man at the crease was none other than Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Mahi), and typical of his style he blasted two consecutive sixes of Axar Patel to give Pune a win and the Vizagites the fireworks that they had been craving for. The stadium erupted in one big celebration.
But this year, Vizagites need not go to the stadium as Visakhapatnam has been edged out from the IPL- 2017 schedule that was announced on Wednesday night.
And this has come as a big disappointment for the cricket buffs, current and former cricketers and cricket administrators.
Visibly annoyed with the decision, former Andhra Ranji wicket-keeper Prasanna Kumar said, “The decision is against the old proverb ‘a friend in need is a friend indeed’. It was Vizag that supported both Pune and Mumbai, when they were in a problem with the water issue, and the Sunrisers Hyderabad when there was a problem with the Telangana agitation. And today, they have dumped Vizag like a ‘hot potato’. This is unfair to the city, cricket administrators and more so the cricket lovers.”
Whether it is the IPL management committee’s decision or the franchisee’s, it is wrong to ignore Visakhapatnam as this is not only a city with one of the most decent cosmopolitan crowds, the stadium is a lovely venue with great facilities, is a test venue and more essentially all the matches are a sell-out. The cricket board or the franchisee had always made lots of money, whenever a match was played here, be it an ODI or IPL, said Mr. Prasanna Kumar.
Vizag has so far hosted nine IPL matches, three when Sunrisers opted out of Hyderabad due to the Telangana agitation and six when Mumabi and Pune were forced to move out due to the water crisis.
“We were, in fact, gearing up for the IPL. We never expected that Mumbai or Pune would disown us, after the experience they had with us. It is a big disappointment,” said Simhachalam, a cricket enthusiast.
Former test umpire, Ranji cricketer and secretary of Visakhapatnam District Cricket Association K. Parthasarathi pointed out that the association members were not taken into to confidence, before zeroing in on the venues. “We were mentally prepared to host the matches, and now we are disappointed. We served all the franchisee and the IPL management well, and the decision has come as an anti-climax,” he said.
Loss on all fronts
With no IPL matches to be played here this season, the city is going to lose out on all fronts. It is not that only cricket will be missed. The image of the city received a tremendous boost as the flow of tourists was very high during the season last year.
Tourists from Pune, Mumbai, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and other districts of the State flocked to Vizag and tourism sector did well.
