Hyderabad jail inmates can enjoy World cup cricket

A good number of prisoners in Hyderabad jails are cricket enthusiasts. So the jail authorities have made arrangements to provide 40 television sets in the Central Prison, Chanchalguda, nearly 100 in the Central Prison, Cherpally, and few more in the Open air jail at Cherlapally.

According to the rules, prisoners are allowed to watch only Doordarshan. And with the matches being telecast live on DD1, Other channels are not allowed to be beamed in the jails. Following a recent court verdict in favour of prisoners to watch world cup cricket matches, the Central Jail authorities there have had to make necessary arrangements to facilitate that.

Prisons in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have provided one TV for each barrack now for all class of prisoners. The special category prisoners also have a TV in each cell. The prisoners are allowed to watch TV up to 9 pm, but prisoners can only watch cricket but not play in the jail, though they have the facility to play shuttle, volleyball, caroms, and chess.

Cherlapalli jail superintendent K V Reddy also said that on Friday, the telecast of the India-West Indies match got a huge audience as Team Dhoni were at their best. However, most of the prisoners missed the game as they were on working grounds during the day and could catch only few glimpses later.