The Hyderabad Cricket Association, on Wednesday, literally put the ball in Committee of Administrators’ court by sending the latter a list of its incumbent office-bearers. These office-bearers, the HCA said, will govern the sport until the Hyderabad High Court pronounces its orders.
It may be recalled that the Supreme Court-appointed CoA had asked the full-member associations of the BCCI to furnish a list of current office-bearers by 5 p.m. on March 1.
Significantly, in its communication to the CoA, the HCA has also furnished an undertaking by its EC members stating that they don’t fall under the disqualification norms as per the Justice Lodha panel guidelines.
For the record, former Test player Arshad Ayub quit as the president of the HCA on February 9 after the Supreme Court order had barred anyone not conforming to the Lodha Panel guidelines from holding any post. Along with Ayub, the HCA Executive Committee members, including former India football captain Victor Amalraj, Srinivas Reddy and Moizuddin, also resigned as they were ineligible to continue in office as per the new norms.
Following this, senior vice-president Narender Goud took over as president in-charge of the HCA, with K. John Manoj continuing as the secretary. These two officials figure in the HCA list sent to the CoA.
It is pertinent to note that the warring groups in the HCA are still awaiting the final word from the Hyderabad High Court with regard to the fate of the elections held in January this year. The elections were held as per the directive of the Ranga Reddy District Court. However, the High Court, while allowing the process of elections to be completed, stayed the announcement of the results until further orders. That effectively meant the existing office-bearers will continue to be in power.
“The logic is pretty simple. Because of the conflicting opinion on the Executive Committee member status, we thought the best way is to leave it to the CoA to take the final call on eligibility norms. All those who are in the EC now are there in the list,” a senior HCA official informed Sportstar .
HCA ‘powerless’
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, even as the top brass of the HCA were engaged in finalising the draft of the letter to be sent to the CoA, the power supply to the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Uppal and the Gymkhana Ground, where the Cricket Academy of Excellence is functioning, was cut off. The reason: the HCA owes the state electricity board Rs. 5 lakh towards the power bill for the Uppal Stadium and Rs. 50,000 for the Gymkhana Ground.
“What can we do? We are increasingly becoming helpless because of funds crunch,” admitted the senior official.
However, to their relief, power was restored late in the evening at Uppal after HCA had promised to clear the dues at the “earliest”.
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