Ray of hope for a ‘clean’ HCA
That the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) has been synonymous with everything that is detrimental to the image of the gentleman’s game is commonplace. It has reached such lows that the moment the name HCA crops up, out spring words like corruption, irregularities, shoddy club structure, outright defiance of the guidelines and reform regulations and making a mockery of Supreme Court rulings as regards governance and administration. Though, the Association has been in the news for all the wrongs reasons for several years now, its image touched the nadir when A Jagan Mohan Rao became its President using fraudulent means despite not meeting the qualification criteria.
The last two years have been marred by murky ‘deals’ ostensibly at the behest of Rao and his cronies. They were carried away in their blind belief that their whims and fancies would hold sway all through their ill-gotten tenure. It was this ‘I can do no wrong’ arrogance that saw them rub the shoulders of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on the wrong side. The flashpoint of the IPL 2025 ticketing scandal that led to SRH management threatening to relocate their headquarters to outside of RGICS was without any doubt the beginning of the end of Rao’s misrule. He and his men have been arrested on charges of forgery and fraud, a development that has been hailed by some ‘genuine’ former administrators.
Even as the players, administrators and support staff were getting worried at the gradual downslide of the sport in Telangana and the massive loss of opportunities to the budding talent, a ray of hope came last month when the Telangana High Court appointed Justice P Naveen Rao as an administrator entrusted to oversee all HCA’s affairs, including Rao’s malpractices. Hopes of possible better days ahead were renewed a couple of days back when the apex council of the HCA took another step towards salvaging lost pride.
The council appointed Imtiaz Khan as the interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Association. He comes with an impressive resume, who, if given a free hand, can hopefully remove the scars and blots and take cricket on the right path in Hyderabad and the districts that come under HCA jurisdiction. A former state-level cricketer, who represented Andhra Pradesh in the U-19 and U-25 categories, and has played for Osmania University, Khan, no doubt, has better credentials than Ram Mohan Rao. Khan must ensure unhindered day-to-day HCA functioning, implement the initiatives drawn up in the transformation package without compromising on transparency professionalism. In effect he must strive to bring about a semblance of the professionally run reputation that the body enjoyed till a few years back.
Meanwhile, the interim CEO must make a deeper study of the allegations levelled by the Telangana Cricket Association (TCA), which ran a massive campaign for the ‘corrupt’ Rao’s ouster and suspension of all office-bearers. In fact, this sustained campaign led to the arrest of Rao and four officials last month.
TCA general secretary Dharam Guruva Reddy has accused Rao of introducing a partisan club structure and misusing funds while making a sham of CAG guidelines. Guruva Reddy has substantiated his arguments with myriad documents and evidence, which implies that TCA has done its homework quite thoroughly. As things stand, the onus is on Khan to cleanse the HCA and priortise promotion of cricket in the interiors, which Rao never cared for. But then, Khan should also reallise that running an entity like HCA is not similar to steering companies like Reliance Communications and Coca-Cola. This is a different ball game altogether.
