Hyderabad:
First, Hyderabad lost hosting rights for the opening ceremony and match of the Indian Premier League over the Telangana issue. Now, the Hyderabad cricket association is conducting the final of the prestigious Duleep Trophy without any spectators in the stadium.
Last month, a T-20 match was disrupted by protesters campaigning for a separate state of Telangana. To avoid a repeat, the South and West Zone teams are playing the final with nobody to cheer them on.
``Basically we do not want to take any chances of the match getting disrupted. It is embarrassing for a big match to go on like this without any spectators getting to watch it. But things are not in our control,'' says Shivlal Yadav, Vice President of the Hyderabad Cricket Association.
The players admit this is a bad advertisement for both Hyderabad and cricket.
``If these kind of things are missed in a city, it is something you will feel bad about especially if you living in the city,'' says Dinesh Karthick, Captain of the South Zone.
Closing gates to cricket-loving Hyderabadis will not result in any financial loss to the Hyderabad cricket association because the entry to the match was always meant to be free. But the inability to keep people safe is what's worrying the city.
In the last few months, protests in support of Telangana have turned violent repeatedly. Public property, including buses, worth crores has been destroyed. Students at Osmania University have been injured in clashes with the police. One student set himself on fire to protest against the government's delay in creating a new Telangana state.
In December, the union government in a surprise announcement sanctioned a Telangana state. But more than a hundred MLAs from different parties resigned within hours in protest. They come from the non-Telangana regions of Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema. After weeks of deliberation and increasing violence on the streets of Hyderabad, the government said all plans were on hold till a political consensus was reached. The government is setting up a committee to negotiate the demands and needs of different parties. So far, no schedule has been finalized for the actual creation of a new state, and that's what has pro-Telangana politicians, student groups, and activists unhappy.