Clouds of controversy hover over HCA

Azharuddin has repeatedly been saying that Justice (retd) Verma’s appointment was approved by the Apex Council and it needed only ratification by the Annual General Meeting (AGM)

Hyderabad: There seems to be no end to the Ombudsman drama in the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA). The latest incident is that the association president Mohammad Azharuddin was taken by surprise with XXV Additional Chief Judge City Civil Court granting a stay on the appointment of Ombudsman Justice (retd) Deepak Verma on Saturday.

“This has been brought to my attention through sources today. The said order has taken me by surprise as the Hyderabad Cricket Association is a respondent in the case filed by a member club Budding Stars Cricket Club and yet as the President of HCA, I’m not aware of the case,” said Azharuddin in a statement on Sunday.

---

What has upset Azharuddin is that the address of the secretary, Hyderabad Cricket Association in the petition is the residential address of the secretary (R Vijayanand), rather than being the registered address of the Hyderabad Cricket Association itself.

“From the above it is evident that there was a deliberate attempt to conceal the case filed against the association from its governing body – The APEX Council which amounts to gross misconduct. Further as you are all aware of, there is a pending complaint against the secretary before the Ombudsman Hon’ble Justice Shri Deepak Verma who has also issued a notice to him. It appears that the petitioner has deliberately filed the petition to protect the interest of those who are facing notices of the Ombudsman, thereby causing greater harm to the cause of Hyderabad Cricket,” Azharuddin concluded.

Azharuddin has repeatedly been saying that Justice (retd) Verma’s appointment was approved by the Apex Council and it needed only ratification by the Annual General Meeting (AGM). However, secretary Vijayanand and others have denied this. They insist that the AGM has to appoint an Ombudsman only. This issue of the Ombudsman was added for the postponed November 26 AGM. The AGM had to be postponed because of the GHMC elections. This latest judgement and Azharuddin’s Sunday statement gives another twist to the ongoing tussle for power between the president and secretary.

Meanwhile, the decision to start the three-day league has run into controversy. Although the HCA conducted Covid-19 tests for the scorers, umpires and players, a lot of questions have been raised regarding the number of the teams in the three-day league. The Apex Council reportedly raised the strength of the league from 18 to 23 or 24 members. This has not gone well among the club secretaries and they say ‘dal mein kala hai’. “There is something fishy in the whole affair and I doubt their honesty in starting the three-day leagues,’’ said T Sheshnarayan, former secretary. “Do you have 400 top players in the City? It is nothing but favouritism and nepotism,” he said.

What is surprising at a time when institutions and banks have stopped recruiting players through sports quota, teams like Customs, Central Tax and Service Tax and AGORC who have the maximum Ranji players are not included in the three-day league format.

Central Excise recently recruited big players Sumanth Kolla, Saket Sairam, Chaitanya Reddy, Anshul Lal, Manish Golamaru (all Ranji Trophy), Chaitanya Krishna, Rohan Yadav and TP Anirudh (under-23) have reportedly not been included in the 23 teams in three-day league. Same is the case with AG Audit, who have a good number of Ranji players in the team.

Naresh Sharma, joint secretary, who is in charge of the leagues, said there is no clarity on which teams will play in the three-day league. “We want some clarification and there could be a further delay to the start of the leagues,” he said.

---

Now you can get handpicked stories from Telangana Today on Telegram everyday. Click the link to subscribe.

Click to follow Telangana Today Facebook page and Twitter .

---