It is nothing but blackmail, says Sunrisers Hyderabad official

In a letter to HCA, Sunrisers management says on the match day against LSG, F3 Box which was given to the visiting team was locked and only after pleading, it was opened just hours before the match started

Hyderabad: “You locking the F3 Box which was given to the ‘Away’ team (Lucknow Super Giants) owner, Mr Goenka, a few hours before the last IPL match and opening it up after we pleaded with you, is purely blackmail,”  T B Srinath, general manager of the Sunrisers Hyderabad, said in a letter written to the HCA Apex Council members on Tuesday.

“We fail to understand how such an act cannot be considered as blackmail and coercion, especially just a few hours before the start of the game,”  Srinath said.

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“The agreement between us very clearly states that we must give you 10% of the saleable tickets across the stands as complimentary to you. But you are taking 3,900 complimentary tickets in the best areas of the stadium, including several boxes. The majority of seats which you have taken are prime seats in the stands on the South side,” he said in the letter in response to the e-mail sent by HCA on March 31.

“Furthermore, the president of HCA, Jagan Mohan Rao, had sent us an email on March 4, 2025, asking us for extra 30 complimentary tickets in SRH’s Owners Lounge. You stating that you did not ask for more than 3,900 complimentary tickets is clearly false,” the SRH official said.

The top brass of the Sunrisers Hyderabad has questioned the claim of the HCA to reimburse the expenditure incurred for the installation of new seats and the canopy of the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium when it was done during the tenure of the Supreme Court-appointed administrator and funded by the BCCI. It is also pointed out that Jagan Mohan Rao was not the president of HCA at that point of time but he has been claiming in the media that he was the one who installed the new seats and the canopy.

“It is the job of the HCA to maintain and provide a clean stadium before the start of the IPL. But, it is only out of concern for the fans that we stepped in to pay for the upgradation of the stadium through CSR,” he said in the letter.

“Even this year, the stadium was handed over to us in a very bad condition and huge sums of money was paid by us for the deep cleaning of the stadium, including the garbage removal prior to the start of the IPL,” it was pointed out.

“Your claim that you do not have the information regarding the vendors and the work is ridiculous after you have issued the authorisation letter to the same vendors for doing the work funded by us,” the SRH official pointed out. “You are in daily contact with our on-ground team and saying that we are unreachable is totally false,” he said.