A big win for India,contentment for cricket fans

A big win for India, double delight for the Hyderabad Cricket Association as its president, Arshad Ayub, will be the manager of the Indian team to tour Australia next month and then the hometown ‘hero’ Ambati Rayudu’s dismissal of the well-set Tillakaratne Dilshan, providing the biggest cheer of all.

The Chief Minister, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who was introduced to both  teams before the match, spent quite a long time at the venue. He was apparently very interested towards the HCA request to convert the lease agreement of the site into a complete ownership of the Association. “We were told a senior official will be asked to look into this,” says a HCA EC member.

It was good to see the naming of enclosures in the stands after some of the finest players from Hyderabad which included the likes of ‘Tiger’ Pataudi, Abbas Ali Baig, P. Krishnamurthy, Syed Abid Ali, M.V. Narasimha Rao (more popular as Bobjee who was here to watch the match along with another 1971 Indian tour member Govindraj), Kenny Jayanthilal, Mohammad Hussain and Gul Mohammed.

For a change, the fans, who at some gates faced embarrassing moments when they were forced to throw away their caps by cops, were in for a pleasant surprise with the eatables not too expensive at the Pavilion End.