Hyderabad: Snubbed by the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) last year, Ambati Rayudu is all set to play for Andhra in the national domestic tournament.
According to BCCI sources, Rayudu, the former Hyderabad captain, got the no-objection certificate (NOC) from the board recently. He will be available for T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali championship, the BCCI’s first big tournament of the Covid-hit 2020-21 season which starts from January 10 next year. The Andhra Cricket Association (ACA) will officially announce Rayudu’s inclusion in a day or two.
This is the second time that the 35-year-old former International will be playing for Andhra — the last in the 2003-04 season when he had the infamous incident with Arjun Yadav in the 2005-06 season in Anantapur.
Rayudu, who played 55 ODIs and six T20Is, had come out of retirement last year and played in T20 and Vijay Hazare one-day tournaments for Hyderabad. But he opted out of the Ranji Trophy season in anger and said that all was not well in the Hyderabad team. “There is a lot of politics in the team, and the atmosphere is not conducive for good cricket. I felt very uncomfortable,’’ he told this paper last year.
The flamboyant batsman, who had highly successful stints with Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, had criticised the HCA for continuing with Arjun Yadav as a coach. He said Yadav was not fit to be the coach of Hyderabad Ranji Team and had warned HCA officials of a disastrous season ahead. Hyderabad had one of the worst outings in the Ranji history as they lost six of the seven outings in the Group B fixtures.
Earlier this year, reliable all-rounder B Sandeep sought a transfer to play for Goa this season.
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