The opening T20 between India and Australia will no longer be played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru and will instead, take place at Visakhapatnam. As per the latest developments, Visakhapatnam will host the opening T20I on February 24 following which Bangalore will host the second T20I on February 27.
This move comes after the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) and the Police Commissioner in Bangalore have informed that they will be unable to guarantee the security support owing to the Aero India Show, a major international event, which will also see the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the same day the match was previously scheduled.
Letter was exchanged between KSCA and ACA
"Kindly refer to our telecon a few minutes back. As you are aware, we are to host the First T-20 match between India and Australia this year, in India, scheduled on Sunday, 24th February 2019 at M Chinnaswamy Stadium. However, as I mentioned to you there has been an adverse development that the Police Commissioner in Bangalore is unable to guarantee the required security support, police bandobast etc," the letter which was written between KSCA and ACA said.
"In view of the above, we would request you to kindly consider swapping our T-20 match with yours i.e. you would host the First T-20 match on Sunday, 24th February, 2019 in Vizag and we would host the Second T-20 match on Wednesday, 27th February, 2019 in Bangalore. I would urge you to consider our request urgently and we would be grateful if you can kindly confirm this swapping of T-20 matches to us and more importantly to the Office Bearers," the mail further added.
This was written by Sanjay M. Desai, president of KSCA, to ACA general secretary Arun Kumar.
BCCI Secretary Amitabh Choudhary took this mail forward and wrote to the Committee of Administrators: "The forwarded email is self-explanatory. The reasons assigned for acceding to the request are in order. An email formally accepting the request may kindly be sent to all concerned at the earliest. The two associations may accordingly prepare."
The request has been approved by CoA member Diana Edulji.
