Azharuddin's nomination for HCA president rejected

Mohammad Azharuddin is likely to appeal to the Justice Lodha panel after his nomination to contest the Hyderabad Cricket Association presidential election was rejected.

Former India captain Mohd Azharuddin making a point after his nomination for the HCA president's post was rejected on Saturday in Hyderabad. Also seen (from left) are former HCA president Arshad Ayub and the HCA Secretary K. John Manoj.

Mohammad Azharuddin's nomination for Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) presidential election, on January 17, was rejected by Returning Officer K. Rajeev Reddy.

Reddy told Sportstar on Saturday morning that he had to reject Azharuddin's nomination as he failed to give a "satisfactory explanation whether the BCCI ban on him, on the wake of match-fixing scandal, was not lifted and that he failed to provide adequate proof that he was enrolled as a voter."

Azharuddin filed his nomination on behalf of the National Cricket Club. Sources close to him have hinted he would take up the issue with the Justice Lodha panel as he feels denied the opportunity as per the panel's recommendations.

Furious Azhar wants answers

"The panel's recommendations have clearly suggested that former international cricketers are eligible to contest and that Azhar even submitted the 2012 High Court judgement copy regarding the setting aside of the BCCI ban. But the decision of the Returning Officer seems to be motivated and not fair," said an official, close to Azharuddin, on condition of anonymity.

The Returning Officer clarified that he can't revert his decision once the list of candidates is displayed. Then, he said, the aggrieved parties will have to take whatever action they deem fit.

This means that there will now be two candidates – Vidyuth Jaisimha and Dr. G. Vivekanand - in the fray for the president’s post.

Interestingly, for the secretary’s post, only T. Seshnarayan, former Executive Committee member and secretary of Bharat Cricket Club, figures in the list of candidates, which means he would be elected unanimously.

But, there are many senior HCA office-bearers who strongly feel "that this whole process would be declared as null and void as it is in violation of the Supreme Court judgement with regard to the conduct of the elections."

The names of other candidates in the fray for different posts are as follows:

Vice-president: Dr. K. Anil Kumar, Imran Mehmood.

Secretary: T. Seshnarayan (only candidate).

Joint-secretary: E. Venkatram Reddy and Ajmal Asad.

Treasurer: Mahender, P. Anuradha and P. Srinivas.

For an Executive Committee member’s post: Messrs Dharmchand Agarwal, Mohd Imaduddin Farooqui, G. Ramakrishna, Satish Chandra Srivastav, Vanka Mahender and K. Hanumanth.