Azhar under fire from Ayub, Shivlal ahead of HCA elections

HYDERABAD: With elections appearing on the horizon, the faction fight within the Hyderabad Cricket Association is only getting uglier by the day. The deep divide within the HCA came to the fore once again with senior club secretaries of the association raising a banner of revolt against the incumbent HCA President and former India captain Mohammed Azharuddin on Monday. Former Indian cricketers Arshad Ayub and Shivlal Yadav, joining force with former HCA

Secretary Seshnarayan, held a press conference at Fateh Maidan Club and slammed Azhar for his 'questionable behaviour'. Also present were current HCA Vice-President John Manoj, Joint Secretary Naresh Sharma, ex-treasurer Devraj, and ex-EC Member Chitti Sridhar, making the split wide open.

Arshad Ayub fired the first salvo alleging that Azharuddin had polluted the HCA by corrupting talent with money. He said the former India captain is acting like a dictator and destabilising all the systems in utter disregard for the association's constitution. Ayub feels that Azhar is targetting those who are questioning his mistakes and criticizing his ill-advised decisions. He is initiating action that hinges on partisan lines. He is resorting to personal vendetta by preventing clubs from playing in HCA leagues and even threatening to de-recognize them.

Shivlal Yadav took the baton from Ayub and continued the tirade. The former off-spinner alleged that Azharuddin was acting in a manner to force everyone into silence and submission even when injustice was being done to talented cricketers. He claimed that the funds coming from BCCI were not being accounted for and the audit report had been hidden for three years.

"Azharuddin should explain why Hyderabad was not being able to host a single international, IPL, Ranji and Mushtaq Ali match in the last three years and who is responsible for all this," Shivlal thundered, adding that Azhar even abolished the advisory board of the selection committee.

Own selection committees are being formed for junior and senior levels and players are being selected based on money rather than talent, he added.

"The association is being run by people not related to HCA. This is not a good practice and will have to pay the price for this," said Shivlal.

Seshnarayan criticized that since the time Azharuddin became the president, accountability in HCA has vanished and dictatorship reigns supreme. He said that the association has become a haven for corruption and malpractices. Infighting has become the order of the day as the members of the executive committee, who were elected as a panel, later filed cases against each other. Seshnarayan said that the disputes of the association were taken to the Supreme Court.

"While the Supreme Court has expressed its indignation against the present administrators of HCA and told them to limit themselves to the affairs of the day-to-day governance, the president is blatantly acting in 'contempt of the court' by moving forward with his own agenda ignoring those guidelines," he said. Rs 2.11 crores have been allocated to set up a state-of-the-art gym which has no takers.

Seshnarayan said that crores of rupees have been wasted in the last three years and Rs16 crore received from BCCI was also diverted. He said that jumbo-size teams were being sent to Ranji matches, Mushtaq Ali tournament and all the other BCCI events, which is against the rules. "The term of the current working group will expire in another month. We will request the Supreme Court and BCCI to hold elections in September," said Seshnarayan.