This e-paper is not claiming that everything is perfect under Justice P. Naveen Rao or HCA Secretary Jeevan Reddy. There are legitimate questions that deserve scrutiny — about selection, player welfare, governance, finances, and the structure of TG20 itself. Those debates are necessary, and this paper will continue to ask those questions fearlessly. But what is unfolding now goes beyond criticism or accountability. What is being witnessed, according to multiple voices within Hyderabad cricket, is an organised attempt to ensure that cricket administration itself never stabilises enough for genuine reform to take root. There will be a time to evaluate the present administration on cricketing outcomes. That time will come. At this moment, however, the larger issue is whether Hyderabad cricket is finally being allowed to function without the old patronage system controlling every corridor of power. Many within the system understand this clearly. That may well explain the growing unease. — EDITOR
Vinay Rao
The corridors of the Hyderabad Cricket Association are restless. Not because something is going wrong — but because, for the first time in years, something may finally be going right.
Picture the breakfast meeting. A quiet table away from the ground. The senior figure arrives unhurried. Tea is ordered. Pleasantries are exchanged. Then comes the familiar message:
“Things are changing. We need to stay together. Don’t worry — your passes will be taken care of. Leave the rest to me.”
This is how power often operated within HCA. Influence was distributed in exchange for compliance. The smaller secretary returned with passes and assurances. The bigger operator walked away with another dependable ally. Season after season, the cycle repeated itself.
What They Built — and How
For nearly a decade, sections of HCA functioned less like a cricketing institution and more like a closed political arrangement. The leasing culture — where club affiliations became instruments of influence and monetisation — evolved into the backbone of that system.
Passes ensured loyalty. Posts and nominations maintained internal hierarchies. Elections allegedly involved far more than cricketing discussions. In return, silence prevailed.
Cricket itself became secondary.
Players outside influential circles often believed opportunities were uneven. Infrastructure suffered where there was no commercial incentive. Administrators who threatened entrenched interests frequently found themselves isolated.
These concerns are not emerging in a vacuum. In 2023, a 46-page inquiry conducted by the Supreme Court-appointed Single Member Committee examined HCA’s 206 affiliated clubs. The report identified approximately 80 clubs allegedly controlled by 12 individuals and their families, creating what it described as a concentrated voting structure. Executive committees of several clubs were subsequently disqualified. The findings were direct and difficult to ignore.
Yet, two years later, many within Hyderabad cricket believe the underlying network remains intact.
Three Developments Changed the Equation
Three parallel developments now appear to have unsettled the old order.
First, the intervention of the Telangana High Court. The appointment of Justice P. Naveen Rao (Retd.) as Single Member Committee introduced something the entrenched ecosystem had not anticipated — institutional oversight with judicial credibility. More significantly, discussions around a possible Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the functioning of the past decade have amplified anxiety within certain circles.
Second, the current administrative alignment. Justice Naveen Rao and HCA Secretary Jeevan Reddy appear, at least for now, to be working toward administrative normalisation. For years, influence depended upon controlling the system from within. That becomes considerably harder when the administration itself begins distancing from legacy structures.
Third, TG20.
A franchise-based, commercially structured T20 league changes the economics entirely. In professionally run leagues, selection cannot easily be manipulated through informal networks. Revenue trails become transparent. Franchise rights acquire measurable commercial value. Investor interests begin replacing patronage interests.
TG20 does not merely threaten old revenue channels. It threatens the relevance of the old operating model itself.
That, perhaps, is the real source of discomfort.
The New Campaign
The breakfast meetings, sources say, have resumed.
Individuals within HCA’s affiliated club ecosystem speak of renewed coordination involving a lawyer-secretary facing questions over club affiliation, alongside several known operators within the circuit. A politically influential figure is also believed to be backing the effort. Funds, according to multiple accounts, are reportedly being mobilised for legal challenges.
The stated objective may be reform. But critics argue that genuine reform usually comes with proposals, structural alternatives, or a vision for governance.
What appears to be emerging instead, they say, is a strategy of disruption — an attempt to stall oversight, delay reforms, and, if necessary, paralyse the institution itself.
A Question for Smaller Clubs
The smaller club secretaries now find themselves at the centre of this battle once again.
The offers remain familiar: passes, positions, assurances, access.
A morsel in exchange for a much larger compromise.
They may wish to ask themselves what their role in this moment will look like five years from now — when investigations conclude, when TG20 potentially creates opportunities for dozens of young cricketers, and when Hyderabad cricket finally attempts to rebuild credibility.
To former and current cricketers, the message is even more direct: you know how this system functioned because many of you survived it personally. The present reforms may be incomplete and imperfect, but they represent one of the few visible attempts in recent years to make selection fairer, payments more transparent, and opportunities more accessible.
That conversation needs voices from within the game.
Now — not later.
The cartel did not build Hyderabad cricket. Cricket survived despite it.
What Hyderabad cricket becomes next should belong to players, clubs, supporters, and the city itself — not merely to the men still conducting negotiations over breakfast tables.
