HYDERABAD: The corruption tainted Hyderabad Cricket Association’s Special General Meeting on Sunday was witness to much drama with HCA president G Vivekanand declaring that the Lodha Committee reforms had been adopted even as members lead by former internationals assailing the whole process as a sham.
“All the recommendations as per the Lodha committee have been passed in toto and we have already informed the same to the Committee of Administrators,” Deccan Chronicle quotes the HCA president as claiming.
Vivekanand’s assertions appeared hollow though with many members, including former international cricketers N Shivlal Yadav, Mohammad Azharuddin and SL Venkatapathy Raju, along with politician V Hanumantha Rao, crying foul.
According to them, only three members agreed to the decision and only those points which benefitted the ruling body were adopted.
“They (the ruling body) wanted to do a one-sided job, but we didn’t allow the Lodha reforms to pass. They will have to conduct one more meeting. There were lot of questions that were asked and they had no answers to them,” Azhar told DC.
“The HCA is working like an autocracy. The current officials are unable to run the game properly thereby showcasing cricket in the state in bad light,” he added.
Shivlal Yadav too hit out saying, “In the current situation it is better that this body is dissolved and a fresh election is held. Let the new body come and function as per Lodha recommendations.”
Even before the SGM there was high drama, as Azharuddin was barred from attending the meeting and was only allowed in after the members raised a din.
Azharuddin has raised corruption allegations against the HCA members and demanded that the association needs to be dissolved.
“Players are lamenting that they have to pay lakhs of money to play matches. You cannot run an organisation on ‘whims and fancies’. This is not somebody’s home; this is an organisation, which is running from 1932,” the former India captain told newswire ANI.
Azhar has captained India in 47 tests during the 1990s. His international playing career came to a controversial end when he was implicated in the infamous match-fixing scandal in 2000 and subsequently banned by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for life.
In 2012, the Andhra Pradesh High Court lifted the ban on him.
