By Shesh Narayan
As someone who has spent decades within the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA), watching its evolution from the inside, I write today not with anger but with deep concern. What is unfolding within the HCA is not mere administrative dysfunction—it is a systematic breakdown of governance, ethics, and respect for constitutional and judicial mandates.
The day is not far when the present Apex Council members themselves will be compelled to answer searching questions—not to disgruntled stakeholders or former officials, but to investigating agencies. The signs are already visible.
We have reached a stage where individuals running the Association believe it is acceptable to demand personal details of club representatives that border on the absurd and the intrusive—details of birth, hospital records, and the very legitimacy of clubs that have existed and contributed to Hyderabad cricket for decades. If this is governance, then it is governance turned rogue.
What we are witnessing today resembles a devil’s workshop—where clerks, brokers, and attendants, assisted by unauthorised intermediaries masquerading as administrators, are effectively running the Association. Elected representatives, particularly from private clubs, have been deliberately marginalised, rendered irrelevant and dispensable in what appears to be a calculated campaign driven by a few former institutional representatives.
Let me state this clearly: Hyderabad cricket cannot be run through intimidation, selective scrutiny, and fabricated documentation. Demanding DNA tests or personal records is not administration—it is harassment, and it exposes the moral bankruptcy of those resorting to such tactics.
Most alarming is the manner in which Annual General Meetings (AGMs) and voting rights are being manipulated. Individuals are being permitted to attend and vote through falsified documentation and questionable representations, in direct violation of binding Supreme Court orders. These are not minor procedural lapses; they are serious breaches that invite legal and criminal consequences.
The Supreme Court has been unambiguous. Only First-Class cricketers are eligible to be nominated to attend AGMs or participate in elections and voting. Any deviation from this principle is not only illegal but contemptuous of the apex court’s authority.
I have no hesitation in saying that all those who believe they can escape accountability by exploiting administrative loopholes are mistaken. Time-appropriate criminal applications are already being moved before the Supreme Court. When scrutiny comes—and it will—every falsification, every unauthorised vote, and every misuse of power will be examined threadbare.
This is not a threat; it is a warning born of experience. Hyderabad cricket belongs to its players, its clubs, and its stakeholders—not to a cabal operating in defiance of law and transparency.
All stakeholders would do well to take note. The music is already playing. When it stops, there will be nowhere left to hide. (The author was former Secretary, Hyderabad Cricket Association)
