‘Hyderabad Cricket Association elections will be held as early as possible’

Vijay Mohan Raj appointed HCAE director, says Durga Prasad

Hyderabad: The much-awaited elections of the Hyderabad Cricket Association will be held as soon as possible as the process for the same has begun already, informed Kode Durga Prasad, former CRPF Director General who is assisting the Supreme Court-appointed one-man committee of Justice L Nageswar Rao.

Divulging the details, Durga Prasad said that Nageswar Rao has given May 10 as the extended deadline for all the club secretaries to submit the details after which he will go through them thoroughly and proceed to conduct the elections. “Once the verification of details is done, the elections will be held very soon,” he said on Tuesday.

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He added that they have zeroed in on former Ranji player Vijay Mohan Raj as the director of the Hyderabad Cricket Academy of Excellence and the support staff, including head coaches, batting, bowling, fielding coaches, trainers and others, will be announced in a couple of days.

In another major development, Durga Prasad said the HCA leagues will begin by the month end. “A few people said we can wait till June or July to start the leagues, but the BCCI domestic season will begin in October. So we want the leagues to be done before that,” he added.

In a bid to encourage more youngsters and make the game accessible to talented cricketers, a cricket academy will come up at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium which will specially cater to the cricketers from rural Telangana. “We will plan to have a dormitory which can host 50 boys and 50 girls from the district who will be given free coaching,” he revealed.

Speaking on the state of the Stadium, Durga Prasad said a lot needs to be done in regard with the facilities. The leakage of drainage pipes is the major problem while they are trying to address several issues like damaged chairs, cleaning water sumps.

He further added that the damaged canopy will be repaired after the competition of IPL while new canopy will be built over East and West stands. Replacing the halogen floodlights with LEDs, two giant LCD screens, installing LED lights at the nets for practice are among a few others they are working on, he revealed.

In a bid to encourage the youngsters, Durga Prasad said that the match passes will be given to under-19, 21, 25 and State players while the day match passes will be given to under-16 players who are registered with the HCA. With Hyderabad set to host the ODI World Cup, scheduled to be held in October, the stadium will have more lifts, modern facilities and infrastructure, he concluded.