As leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) gather in Beijing on August 31, the mood across Eurasia will be one of consolidation. Once seen as a loose regional bloc, the SCO has matured into a serious geopolitical platform—China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Central Asian states, and now partners like Iran are redefining regional security and…
MS Shanker Hyderabad cricket, for long defined by turmoil in its association and decline on the field, is showing signs of revival. The state team’s strong run in the ongoing Butchi Babu tournament — two convincing wins and a firm grip on a semifinal berth — has sparked rare optimism. For a side that once…
For years, the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) has been projected as a custodian of talent, the nursery that once produced the likes of ML Jaisimha, Mohammad Azharuddin, VVS Laxman, and a string of India internationals. But peel back the façade of cricketing pride, and one finds a cesspool of corruption, manipulation, and brazen looting of…
Club Secretaries Hold the Key MS Shanker In the past few weeks, I have been reaching out to those who matter most in Hyderabad cricket—not just former players, administrators, or politicians, but the men at the grassroots who truly decide the direction of the game: the club secretaries. With 216 affiliated clubs forming the electoral…
The Indian Parliament this week sent out a strong message: playtime is over. By passing a bill to ban the operating, facilitating, and advertising of online games played with money, the Lok Sabha has drawn a hard line against what many parents, educators, and policymakers have long feared—gaming addiction spiraling into a full-blown social crisis….
MS Shanker The Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) appears to be sinking deeper into crisis under its Acting President Sardar Daljit Singh, who has once again courted controversy by convening a Special General Body Meeting (SGM) in defiance of the association’s by-laws and amid a host of unresolved disputes. A letter dated August 14, issued by…
Inside the System: A Veteran Secretary D Kishen Rao Speaks Out In the course of writing this long-running series over the last few months, I’ve interacted with a range of voices—from former state players to disgruntled selectors—trying to piece together how Hyderabad cricket, once a proud nursery of the sport, fell into its current state…
MS Shanker The crisis inside the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) has deepened, with Acting President Sardar Daljit Singh coming under increasing fire for allegedly arbitrary actions taken by a truncated apex council — one that critics say has no mandate under the association’s own rules. In the latest challenge, Ramakrishna Udupa of Classic Cricket Club…
MS Shanker Azharuddin – From Captaincy to Controversy When a senior police officer recently named three former India cricketers—Shivlal Yadav, Arshad Ayub, and Mohammad Azharuddin—as key culprits behind the sorry state of the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA), it wasn’t hyperbole. It was a blunt, uncomfortable truth that had long circulated in cricketing circles. In the…
MS Shanker Mohan Bhupathy, former selector, speaks out: No more experiments, we need results In the wake of the state CID’s recent crackdown on the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA), a long-overdue clean-up operation finally seems to be underway. The arrests of three HCA officials, including the sitting President, in connection with the IPL ticketing scam…
