A day after G. Vivekanand was elected as the president of the Hyderabad Cricket Association, former India and Hyderabad captain Mohammad Azharuddin expressed his displeasure at the manner in which the controversial HCA election was conducted in January.
“It's very disappointing... I totally respect the decision of the court without any doubt,” said Azharuddin, on the sidelines of the inaugural Raj Singh Dungarpur Memorial Spirit of Cricket Lecture, delivered by former India cricketer Yajurvindra Singh, at the iconic Cricket Club of India on Saturday.
“But my personal feeling is that when the election was held, no Lodha recommendation was followed. Naturally, if he is the only person to run for the election, then he will obviously win. You didn't allow many people to run for the election. According to the Lodha report, an election commissioner has to conduct the election.
“If he is not available in Hyderabad, he should be sought from another state. They didn't do that. They appointed a returning officer and held the election. But anyway, the court has given its verdict. I totally respect that but we have to decide the future course of action.”
Azharuddin was disallowed to contest for the post of HCA president for the elections conducted in January. The counting of votes had been stayed by the High Court till Friday.
Azharuddin's application was rejected by the returning officer K. Rajiv Reddy since he couldn't give satisfactory explanation on whether the BCCI's life ban, imposed after the match-fixing scandal in 2000, had been lifted or not.
'Agree with Sourav on Kohli'
Sourav Ganguly, who succeeded Azharuddin as India captain, had recently stated that Virat Kohli's over-aggression on the field may have affected his batting during India's just-concluded Test series against Australia. “Maybe I tend to agree on that but that's how he (Virat) is, that's how he plays and we have to respect that,” he said.
Welcoming the BCCI's decision to bar injured players from participating in the IPL, Azharuddin hoped that Cheteshwar Pujara and a few youngsters who won't feature in IPL would feature in County Championship in England.
“I would like some of the players who are not playing the IPL to go and play County cricket and get the experience of playing on different kinds of wickets. At this time, in April, May, June, the ball moves so much,” he said.
“It would be a good experience and exposure to Pujara and some other players. That experience will be very good when we go to England or in conditions where the ball tends to move and bounce.”
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