File Photo: HCA president Mohd Azharuddin (right) and secretary R Vijayanand (centre).
Hyderabad: The bitter struggle for power continued in the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) with secretary R Vijayanand announcing that Suneel Kante had assumed the office as the new CEO of the body in the presence of vice-president John Manoj and other three Apex Council members.
Within a few hours, association president Mohammed Azharuddin sent a message in WhatsApp to all the club secretaries saying that the appointment of Kante was illegal and it suffered ‘from procedural infirmities’.
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However, Vijayanand said Kante had all the requirements for the post and they had it announced in the April 11 meeting. “He was one of the four short-listed candidates after there were 31 applicants for the post. We went through all the procedures and after a proper interview we appointed Kante as our new CEO. We had requested our president to attend the Apex Council meeting but he did not do so,” he said.
He also said that Kante will be available at HCA office Rajeev Gandhi International Stadium during office hours.
Hitting out at the Apex Council members, Azharuddin said there are certain eligibility conditions laid down in the constitution for the appointment of a CEO under Rule 23(1). “The appointment has to be made by the APEX council. I have not been consulted, I have not assessed any candidate to confirm if he meets the eligibility conditions prescribed in 23(1). I’m sure other educated & rule compliant members-at least 3 of them have not been consulted.”
He further said there is an in-house procedure that needs to be set up for appointing the CEO.
“Setting up an interview panel, recording interview feedback by the interviewer, maintaining them as a record, then convening a full meeting of the Apex council to consider the names of shortlisted candidates and finally select one of them. But none of this happened. All that I know is that the CEO & CFO positions were advertised in the newspaper on my push and suddenly this announcement.”
Admitting that HCA is now a divided house, the former Indian captain said he would not be cowed by these acts. “We all know what has happened on April 11 and the subsequent acts clearly make us a divided house. If you think that you can bulldoze and hallucinate that you have a majority and therefore can bulldoze, I will not be cowed down.”
Azharuddin this will be brought to the notice of the BCCI. “This was a blatant violation of the constitution. It should be brought to the attention of the BCCI, the Supreme Court and High Court and it is a contempt of law,” he said.
He further added he will not spare anyone who indulges in corruption. “It is high time to stop the proprietorship administration currently being practiced to promote corruption in HCA. We need to completely clean up and restore efficiency. I will be as hard as I can to try to achieve a clean administration,” he said.
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