Where Are You, Mr Son-In-Law?

At last, the Board for Cricket Control in India (BCCI) announced the schedule for the much-awaited Indian Premier League (IPL), a festival of cricket, much to the delight of cricket lovers.

Unfortunately, not a single match has been scheduled in the Telugu states. Both Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam have excellent cricket grounds, but the BCCI chose not to choose any of these two stadiums.

Naturally, the decision evoked wild protests from cricket lovers in the Telugu states on the social media. Maybe, KTR has anticipated such a situation in advance and made an appeal to the BICC on Twitter, requesting at least one match be allotted to Hyderabad.

Surprisingly, there was no such demand, at least for the sake of record, from the Andhra Pradesh government. Not a single statement has been issued either by Visakhapatnam Cricket Stadium or Andhra Cricket Association. Readmore!

In fact, Andhra Cricket Association is headed by Sharath Chandra Reddy, son-in-law of YSR Congress party general secretary and Rajya Sabha member V Vijay Sai Reddy. But neither Sharat Chandra nor his association has issued any statement seeking allotment of a match to Visakhapatnam.

In fact, Andhra might not have a team of its own, but several international cricket matches were held in Visakhapatnam in the past. Naturally, there have been criticisms from the fans that the Andhra government has failed to achieve at least one IPL match for Visakhapatnam.

Though the mainstream media did not attach much importance to the same, the social media is flooded with trolling against the BCCI, VCA and the state government.

Questions like: “Is there any team from Ahmedabad? Has any IPL team been representing Ahmedabad that demanded the own ground? Is there any sudden fall in Covid-10 cases in Gujarat? Has Mohali dropped from the list of venues only because farmers are agitating?” are doing rounds in the social media.

People are also asking the BCCI as to what crime Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam had committed to be denied the chance to host any IPL match? Can’t Telugu people watch IPL? Why are they hosting it in Mumbai, where the pandemic is more? Why this discrimination?” they have asked.

Any answers to this, Mr Son-In-Law?