Hyderabad’s dismal performance in Ranji Trophy exposes power politics in HCA

Chopping and changing the team constantly hit team hard as they languish at the bottom

Hyderabad: The new Ranji Trophy season has exposed the power politics in the Hyderabad Cricket Association once again.

While the infighting in the association has been the talk of the town since September last when president Mohammad Azharuddin’s term expired, the performance of the team on the field too has nosedived.

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Having taken a single point from the drawn game against Tamil Nadu in the opener they went on to lose the next four matches – against Assam, Mumbai, Andhra and Saurashtra.

The latest thrashing against Saurashtra at Gymkhana inside two days raised many eyebrows, questioning the quality of the game in the State and the constant changes in the team.

In a first, 24 players have been tried in the five matches. Nine players made their debut this season while the playing XI has been tinkered with every match. Barring captain Tanmay Agarwal, K Rohit Rayudu and T Ravi Teja, none of the players retained their place in all the matches.

The first match against Tamil Nadu saw Kartikeya Kak and Abhirath Reddy make debuts while M Shashank was given the debut cap against Mumbai.

The match against Assam saw three players donning the Ranji colours – Bhagath Varma, Bhavesh Seth and Samhith Reddy – while Pragnay Reddy took the field for the first time against Andhra.

Despite losing three matches on the trot, the HCA management continued chopping and changing the team. Abrar Mohiuddin and T Santosh Goud were called in for the last match. However, the end result was the same – a loss.

There were bizarre changes throughout as well. Hyderabad’s senior player P Akshath Reddy was called for the match against Mumbai and he was axed after that.

First-match centurion Mickil Jaiswal was dropped after two more matches. Joint-highest wicket-taker Kartikeya Kak (15 wickets) was asked to warm the benches in the match against Saurashtra to make way for others.

Meanwhile, former cricketers hit out at the HCA officials responsible for constant changes in the team.

With no settled look to the team and lack of surety to players’ place, the performances were sure to go downhill.

Coach Milap Mewada rued that he could not work with players on their game since there is no long rope to anyone. “We select the playing XI from the team that was given to us by the management. The team will be selected based on the conditions and the wicket.”

Speaking ahead of Saurashtra’s game, he said, “Lack of experience is one of the reasons. Most of them are youngsters. They still don’t understand the importance of staying long in the match. They need to convert the starts and control the game. They are still in the process of learning. If we got quality time to prepare well, we could have done better. This season, we had only three days’ time and the players kept changing. Most of the boys started playing recently. We need to be patient with them.”