Hyderabad: The chaotic Sunday’s Annual General Meeting of the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) clearly indicated that president Mohammed Azharuddin is fighting a lonely battle against the rest of the five members in the Apex Council.
The resultant fallout has further widened the gap between the former Indian captain and the other Apex Council members.
Now all the attention will be on how Azharuddin will tackle and negotiate this dicey situation.
Being alone in the Apex Council could put Azharuddin on the back foot. It will test Azharuddin’s skills as an administrator against a strong group that knows the tricks of the trade.
There have been ugly skirmishes in the past but the March 28 and April 11 AGMs could be one of the worst of the already badly maligned HCA.
Having fought as one group in the last elections, Azharuddin’s relations with Apex Council members have been on a slippery track and these differences surfaced in the two AGMs. Now attention will be on how the BCCI would react to the latest episode of HC.
Who will call the shots in the HCA now? That is the question that is on everyone’s mind. Incidentally, Azharuddin named Justice (retd) Deepak Verma as the Ombudsman while Vijayanand said that Justice (retd) Nisar Ahmad Kakru will take charge of that post.
The Azhar group has already written to Justice Verma who reportedly accepted to continue as Ombudsman while the Vijayanand group has sent the letter to Justice Kakru on Sunday itself. Both the groups claim that they have got the approval of the AGM.
What is intriguing is the dynamics and dramatics that are being played out in the HCA which has grown nastier by the day. A senior cricketer blamed Azharuddin for the present crisis. ”He fought the elections with this group well aware that he would be treading on thin ice. He should have taken a few senior players into confidence who could have given valuable suggestions instead of depending on a few players.
“He had the best chance to prove his credentials but failed to show his administrative acumen particularly in the Vijay Hazare and T20 Mushtaq Ali tournaments. It was worst when a two-member selection team picked a Vijay Hazare team.’’
He could have brought all the cricketers and former administrators into one fold for a better administration. It is now a bit late for Azhar to convince the former cricketers.
Meanwhile, the Azhar group said the jumbo list of various committees announced on Sunday was a desperate measure to keep the club secretaries in good humor. Some have however denied that they have accepted the posts. Former secretary T Shesh Narayan said he was hardly consulted before naming him in the committee.
One club secretary said that they would support Azharuddin in this fight, particularly in the Ombudsman case. He added that the Anti-Corruption case is still in cold storage. “If the cases are expedited it would have been a different tale to tell. The very naming of Shivlal Yadav as HCA’s representative to BCCI goes against the Lodha reforms. The owning of multiple clubs is the root cause of the present mess and the first thing Ombudsman is to get rid of this nuisance.’’
With no sign of any rapprochement on the cards, the best possible solution would be for the BCCI to implement the Rajasthan formula to HCA wherein the Board-administrators will take care of the day-to-day running of the association. If this happens, it will be a black mark on Hyderabad’s cricketing legacy.
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