Azharuddin to sue HCA officials

Hyderabad: Former Indian skipper Mohammad Azharuddin will sue several officials of Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) for putting stumbling blocks to his aspirations to contest elections to the Association and also for continuously blacklisting him despite a green signal from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Lashing out at the present body, in particularly president G Vivekanand, for their web of lies with regard to his reputation and stature, Azharuddin told reporters here on Saturday that they were destroying the last fabric of democratic functioning with their autocratic style that was preventing individuals like him to seek a popular mandate.

Stating that the likes of Vivek and his henchmen had become power-hungry, Azharuddin said it was seemingly clear that he was overly desperate to hang on to the seat despite being there illegally besides a crass conflict of interest.

He said that he was trying to mobilise the support of former state cricketers, most of whom are condemning the unilateral functioning of Vivekanand, and take them to the BCCI bosses and present a factual picture vis-à-vis HCA for remedial measures before things reached a point of no return.

He said that it was unbecoming of a man of Vivek’s stature (advisor to the State Government) to malign the character of a player who has been absolved by the courts and also BCCI. He wondered how HCA officials can violate the laws of the land and still survive when the whole world was aware of their nefarious manipulations to isolate credible players like him and preventing them from contesting elections.

“It pains me that he (Vivek) has been bypassing the Rule Book in his obsession to hang on to power. I have documentary clearances from BCCI to prove my credibility. During last year’s dubiously conducted election hotchpotch, Vivek and Prakash Jain had lied before the Returning Officer that I was still in the banned list. It is preposterous that their word prevailed and I had become ineligible to contest.

Apparently, they did not wish to face me as they were apprehensive of the verdict,” reasoned Azharuddin, who insists that he preferred to come to power, cleanse the Association of all its ill-gotten reputation and do something really good for Hyderabad cricket.

“I wonder why Vivek is spreading canards that I have not been cleared by the BCCI. It is nothing but hogwash. It is outlandish suppression of my fundamental rights by a man who is misusing powers from a position that he has usurped illegally, as it was in clear violation of the Lodha panel reform measures,’ was the dismayed lament.

Taking the illegal accusations further, the former player said that even the ongoing “G Venkataswamy Cup Telangana T20 tournament does not enjoy BCCI sanction. Yet he claims it to be a HCA event. Similar tournaments conducted in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and by other State Associations have the blessings of BCCI because they have obtained prior permission”.

Azharuddin pointed out that he had met Ombudsman L Narasimha Reddy and apprised him of the situation while seeking his forthwith intervention in order to save whatever remained of the reputation of Hyderabad Cricket Association.

He would shortly file a case against the HCA officials and ensure that his name would not be further maligned. Restoring the lost image of Hyderabad cricket was his obsessive mission, Azharuddin reiterated.