Hyderabad: The Telangana Cricket Association (TCA) General Secretary Dharam Guruva Reddy has alleged that former minister K T Rama Rao and MLC Kavitha played a key role in irregularities within the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) through fraudulent accounting and the manipulation of club memberships.

Addressing a press conference, the TCA general secretary alleged that a quid pro quo was at play in the HCA’s misdeeds, with these and many more irregularities coming to light with the ongoing CID investigation. Guruva Reddy referenced the 2015-16 HCA AGM Report, which mentioned that K T Rama Rao (then Minister) was nominated as a member of BCCI’s IT and Data Management Sub-Committee. Following this, several quid pro quo favours were allegedly exchanged.

The TCA general secretary alleged that KTR’s brother-in-law, Rajendra Pakala’s company, EventsNow.com, was awarded contracts for IPL ticketing. “In return, KTR facilitated relief for HCA regarding the payment of Rs 14 crore in property tax to IALA, allowing it to be paid in tiny instalments of just Rs 25 lakh annually,” Reddy claimed.

The TCA also questioned HCA’s financial practices, alleging that for the last ten years, the association has been “copy-pasting” the same audit report. Guruva Reddy pointed out that Rs 6.10 crore was given annually for the development of clubs, even to those without teams, and that Rs 12 crore per annum was allocated to HCA administrative affairs. He questioned the justification for such high expenses.

Additionally, Guruva Reddy highlighted that HCA’s own President’s Report (by Arshad Ayub) recorded that with KTR’s intervention, negotiations were made to settle outstanding Income Tax and Service Tax dues in flexible instalments. He also noted that even after the ticketing contract ended in 2019, audit books from 2017-2025 still showed annual payments of Rs 12 lakhs to the same company, raising suspicion of ongoing kickbacks. Guruva Reddy also pointed out that the current HCA President was elected fraudulently by manipulating the list of government institutional voters.

He informed that the TCA has already written to the CID to expand the investigation to cover the past 10 years of financial irregularities. He claimed that 76 clubs do not fulfil compliance norms of the BCCI bylaws and a total of 155 clubs were liable for suspension. Reddy appealed to the Government and the CID to register criminal cases against all those responsible for the crisis and strongly demanded that the TCA be recognised as a full member of the BCCI to protect and nurture cricket in Telangana.