Hyderabad Cricket board at it again
Two-member selection panel picks team for Hazare tourney; Lodha Committee recommendations yet to be implemented.
Hyderabad: The Mohd Azharuddin-led Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) is again in the spotlight for flouting the recommendations of the Lodha Committee on cricket reforms.
Going against the rules, on a day of high drama, the HCA constituted a two-member selection panel of Arvind Shetty and Anwar Ahmed, who picked a 22-member team for the Vijay Hazare one-day tournament against the norm of a five-member committee as per the association constitution. Interestingly, Tanmay Agarwal, who had a dismal run as captain in the last year’s Ranji Trophy and this season’s Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament, will continue to lead the team. Hyderabad are placed in Elite A group and will play their matches in Surat from February 20.
The Lodha Committee was formed basically to bring transparency in administrative and selection matters. It is 18 months since the new HCA body came to power but HCA is yet to have an Ombudsman or Cricket Advisory Committee or five-member selection panel as suggested by the Lodha Committee. All these could have been possible if the Apex Council had convened the much-delayed Annual General Meeting (AGM). No fresh dates have been announced after the November 2 AGM was postponed because of the GHMC elections on December 1.
The HCA had appointed ad-hoc RA Swaroop-led five-member committee for the 2019-2020 season. Although the cricket season started late because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the HCA did not convene the AGM or appoint the five-member selection panel. The HCA announced that Shivaji Yadav, Ahmed Quadri and Abhinav Kumar would select the team for only T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament. The team fared very badly in the tournament.
Even though the HCA had a good one month gap the Apex Council didn’t bother to convene the AGM to select the CAC who will appoint the five selectors. However, out of the blue, the HCA on Wednesday reportedly appointed a three-member selection panel with Arvind Shetty, Abhinav Kumar and Habeeb Ahmed to pick the team for the Vijay Hazare one-day tournament. Shivaji Yadav refused to continue in the panel and later Abhinav Kumar too withdrew. Ahmed Quadri is away in Indore for the SBI tournament.
However, because of the Covid-19, there is mandatory quarantine and the players have to report in Surat by February 13. The team was reportedly selected by Arvind Shetty and Anwar Ahmed after Habeeb Ahmed also pulled out of the panel.
“There is a lot of pressure on the selectors from the club secretaries and the office-bearers and in the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament few undeserving players were selected. This has not gone well as the selectors are not given free hand while selecting the players. This has resulted in poor performances and it will continue to be so in the Vijay Hazare tournament,’’ said a club secretary.
Anirudh Singh was retained as coach of the team.
Team: Tanmay Ag arwal (captain), B Sandeep (vice-captain), Tilak Varma, Himalay Agarwal, Mir Jaweed Ali, B Anirudh, C V Milind, T Ravi Teja, Ajay Dev Goud, Tanay Tyagarajan, Abdul Ela Qureshi, Ashish Srivastav, Mickil Jaiswal, Prateek Reddy (wk), J Mallikarjun (wk), Shreyas Vala, Ctl Rakshann Readdi, Yash Gupta (wk), Satwik Reddy, Bhagath Varma, Akhilesh Reddy and Mehdi Hasan. Standbyes: G Aniketh Reddy. Surya Prasad, Alankrit Agarwal, N Anirudh Reddy, Aman Sheron, Md Abdul Adnan.
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 .
