The recently formed Telangana Cricket Joint Action Committee got its first success on Saturday when they forced the Hyderabad Cricket Association to sack the coach Ch Venkatapathi Raju, who hails from Andhra region.
The T-cricket JAC leaders staged a dharna in front of the HCA office at Uppal stadium and demanded that Raju be sacked as a coach, as he had deliberately caused the defeat of the Hyderabad team in Ranji trophy tournament last week. Within a couple of hours, the HCA board sacked Raju.
The T-JAC leaders alleged that Raju, who was earlier in the national selectors panel, had meted out gross injustice to Telangana in the HCA and filled it up with non-locals. All the HCA members, including its secretary, coach and players of Hyderabad Ranji Team were non-locals, they said. They also demanded that the alleged irregularities that had taken place with regard to the Uppal cricket stadium be probed. Besides, the Uppal stadium should be rechristened after the legendary Gond tribal leader Komuram Bheem, they said.
