Season-opener shifted to Mumbai

The IPL has decided to switch this season's opening match to Mumbai from Hyderabad, which has been the scene of violent protests demanding a separate state of Telengana.

The inaugural game between Deccan Chargers and Kolkata Knight Riders and the opening ceremony of the third season was originally scheduled to be held at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on March 12, but will now be held in Mumbai.

"It requires a lot of time to prepare for the opening ceremony and associated preparations," said Sundar Raman, COO of the IPL, said. "The franchise [Deccan] felt it is best to have it in Mumbai for commercial and preparation reasons."

Hyderabad was to initially host five of Deccan's home matches while the other two have been allotted to Visakhapatnam. Security worries arising from the Telengana agitations had also caused a scheduled one-dayer between India and Sri Lanka to be shifted out of Visakhapatnam last month.

Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, said there was a change only in the first match of the season. "The opening game, the opening ceremony and the opening gala dinner (on March 11) are very important for us," he said. "People from all over the world are coming and we are going to make sure that everything is in order. We don't want to take any chances.

"There are no changes to other matches, everything looks fine. We have worked it out with franchises and the teams and decided that match would be held in Mumbai."

The IPL's organisers also stressed that another venue with a question mark over it, Delhi's Feroz Shah Kotla which has been hit with a one-year international ban for laying out an unsafe pitch for a one-dayer last month, will host all IPL matches allotted to it. "Delhi remains a venue for IPL," Modi said. "All the preparations are being made. Practice games will start in the first week of February and we will ensure that the pitch is in right condition to play matches."