Visakhapatnam: Cricket fever has gripped the city with cricket enthusiasts from far and near camping to watch the Prof. DB Deodhar Trophy tournament at the Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy stadium to be held from March 25 to 29. A larger number of cricket buffs on Thursday visited Vizag Airport and hotels to welcome cricketers Harbhajan Singh, Krunal Pandya, Deepak Hooda, Manoj Tiwary and a few others. Not missing the chance, the fans took selfies with the cricketers.
Though Vizag has hosted ODIs, Test-Match, Twenty-20 match and also some matches of IPL, for the first time Vizag will be hosting the Prof DB Deodhar Trophy Tournament. Three teams — India Blue, India Red and the winner of the Vijaya Hazare Trophy (Tamil Nadu), will participate in the league tournament. All the matches will be of 50 overs a side and are day fixtures beginning at 9 am.
The Indian selector nabbed Rohit Sharma and Parthiv Patel as skippers of the India Blue and India Red sides and Vijay Shankar will lead Tamil Nadu team for the Deodhar Trophy Tournament. Senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh will be playing in the tournament and Vizagites get another opportunity to witness the top players like Shikar Dhawan, Manish Pandey, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel and few others. However, the cricket buffs were disappointed as Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh have been rested and Suresh Raina was not listed in the squad.
Cricket buffs will get free entry for the tournament. As per the schedule, on March 25, India Blue will clash with India Red, March 26: India Red vs Tamil Nadu, March 27: India Blue vs Tamil Nadu, March 28: Rest Day and March 29: Final.
