The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Friday swapped the dates of India’s T20 Internationals against West Indies with Mumbai hosting the third game on December 11 and the December 6 opener going to Hyderabad.
The Mumbai Police has expressed inability to provide security as the city will be on high alert on December 6, the anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition and also the “Mahaparinirvan Din” of BR Ambedkar.
On that day, lakhs of Ambedkar followers throng the Chaityabhumi, his memorial in Dadar. “The BCCI has agreed to swap the dates of the Mumbai [December 6] and Hyderabad [December 11] games. We were able to carry out the swap after HCA president Mohammed Azharuddin agreed,” a senior Mumbai Cricket Association official was quoted as saying by PTI.
Another official was reported as saying that Azharuddin played an important role in this swap else the Mumbai Cricket Association was set to lose the match.
A senior police official said that MCA officials met one of the top cops and apprised him of the development. Now, with the change, the series opener of the three-match T20 series would be played in Hyderabad while the last match will be played at the Wankhede Stadium.
Also, the last time MCA had hosted an international match was against Sri Lanka, a T20 in December 2017. Last year, due to administrative issues in the MCA, the BCCI had moved the One-day International against West Indies from Wankhede Stadium in south Mumbai to the nearby Brabourne Stadium, which is managed by the Cricket Club of India.