HYDERABAD: Given their abysmal record at the Uppal Stadium, where they lost 13 of the 14 matches since the Indian Premier League got rolling in 2008, home team, the Deccan Chargers, are taking no chances this time around. They will kick off their campaign in IPL-5, which starts in April, away from Uppal! Their first four matches will be played at Cuttack and Visakhapatnam and the last four at Uppal.Is Uppal so jinxed for the home team? A cursory glance at their performance speaks volumes. In the inaugural edition in 2008, the Chargers lost all of their seven matches at Uppal. The next year when the IPL moved to South Africa, they went on to win the title. In the 2010 edition, Chargers did not play a single match at Uppal because of the Telangana agitation. The ‘home’ matches were played in Mumbai, Cuttack and Nagpur and magically, the Chargers reached the semis. After a two-year gap, Chargers once again played on home turf last year only to bite the dust. They played seven matches and lost six. The lone victory came against the Royal Challengers. Their misery came to an end after the frustrating and embarrassing campaign finally ended.This time, though, believing that discretion is the better part of valour, the home team is trying to keep Uppal to the last leg of the tournament. They will open their campaign against defending champions Chennai Super Kings at Visakhapatnam on April 7 and follow it up with a match against Mumbai Indians at the same venue on April 9. They next “host” Delhi Daredevils on April 19 and the Kolkata Knight Riders on April 22 at the Barbati Stadium in Cuttack. The Chargers will play their final four `home’ matches at Uppal. They will lock horns with the Pune Warriors here on May 1. The next three matches will be on May 8 (against Kings XI), May 18 (against Rajasthan Royals) and May 20 (against Royal Challengers, Bangalore).E Venkat Reddy, director (operations), Deccan Chargers, however denied that their schedule has anything to do with the Uppal jinx. “We wanted to host matches in our catchment centres of Visakhapatnam and Cuttack. So we decided to start our campaign in those places before coming to Hyderabad. It has nothing to do with jinx factor. Last year, India won their one-day match also,’’ said Reddy, adding, “Hyderabad can’t take all the eight matches. We expect good crowds in Visakhapatnam and Cuttack. With only four matches here, we expect a better crowd.’’ The infamous tag of the Uppal Stadium prompted the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) to install an idol of Lord Ganesh at the entrance of the stadium before the India-England one-day match. It had an immediate effect as Team India broke the jinx and finally won a match at Uppal after losing to Australia twice and South Africa once.
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