Reviving Hyderabad Cricket: A One-Man Crusade Against A Rotten Empire
Interestingly, some episodes in this series have featured cricketers whose involvement in the murky politics of the state cricket association—through lobbying, backroom deals, and profiteering—may have upset many. Their actions arguably contributed to the decline of the game. Yet, my decision to feature them was deliberate: they once played for the state and zonal teams, and their stories are part of the larger narrative. As a journalist, I won’t shy away from criticism. I will offer them a fair chance to respond, and will publish their rebuttals if they choose to correct or counter what they perceive as misrepresentation. – Author
MS Shanker
Continuing this pursuit of unmasking the real and forgotten contributors to Hyderabad cricket, this week I turn the spotlight on a quiet warrior—Kammela Saibaba.
He never played for India, barely featured for the Hyderabad and Andhra Ranji teams, and had a modest playing career at the U-16 and U-19 levels. But don’t let the stats fool you. Saibaba’s impact on the game has been far deeper and nobler than those who used the sport as a ladder to fame, fortune, and infamy.
A proud alumnus of the prestigious Nizam College and former captain of Osmania University’s cricket team in the All-India Inter-University tournaments, Saibaba was also a member of the Hyderabad Cricket Association’s (HCA) Management Committee when Hyderabad won its first and only Ranji Trophy under M.V. Narasimha Rao, post-independence.
But his true legacy began when he leased out a neglected, swampy piece of land once part of a water body—Masab Tank—to launch the Sports Coaching Foundation (SCF). Decades before the words “grassroots development” became buzzwords, Saibaba was quietly building exactly that.
Unlike the flashy ex-players who set up academies merely to curry favour with the state association—turning into power brokers rather than grooming tiny-tots into future cricketers—Saibaba’s SCF was a non-profit venture dedicated to underprivileged children. Ironically, some of the best players who emerged from Hyderabad did so not because of these rogue academies, but despite them—thanks to sheer talent and luck.
In contrast, Saibaba didn’t just coach his wards—he clothed them, fed them, mentored them, and shielded them from being devoured by a corrupt system. He roped in bureaucrats, found a few kind-hearted philanthropists to support the cause, and toiled daily on the ground. So did his wife—watering pitches herself when the groundsmen didn’t show up.
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For his efforts, he was honoured with the President of India’s National NGO Award, making him perhaps the only Indian cricketer-turned-activist to receive such a national recognition for service to sport. In addition to this, Saibaba also received two prestigious international awards, one each from France and Australia.
While others of his age chased power, perks, and plum posts in the HCA—some of them even turning into fixers and middlemen who sold team slots to the highest bidder—Saibaba stayed fiercely independent. He even brought the first Bowling Machine to Hyderabad to improve training, and yet SCF-trained kids were systematically ignored for state teams.
Why? Because he wasn’t part of the power nexus.
He didn’t trade votes. He didn’t cut shady deals. He didn’t build clubs to launder money or line his pockets. This, despite facing difficult times under successive governments and political forces—many of whom eventually realized that his vision was genuine: to promote sport across the spectrum, especially among the underprivileged who, by the accident of birth into poverty, could not otherwise afford the opportunity.
But others did. And we all know who they are.
Some are ex-Test players. One even led India. Today, they’ve become the face of HCA’s collapse—names whispered in corridors as power brokers, player-pushers, and property lobbyists.
Saibaba, by contrast, offers a clear blueprint to revive Hyderabad cricket—and it begins with burning the old script.
“The rot runs deep,” he says. “Unless there’s a revolution, it’s impossible to revive Hyderabad cricket.”
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Here’s what he proposes:
- Clean up the clubs. Only retain those who transparently use BCCI funds for actual player welfare and infrastructure. The rest must be shown the door.
- De-politicise selections. Bring in upright coaches and forgotten warriors as selectors and advisors. Not everyone above 70 is outdated—some are cricketing encyclopedias.
- Suspend elections. No more sham elections controlled by lobbies. A three-year moratorium, with a 7-member court-appointed committee at the helm—one judge (sitting or retired), two bureaucrats, and four honest ex-cricketers—is the need of the hour.
- Investigate the money trail. The Anti-Corruption Bureau once filed FIRs against HCA officials, but they were conveniently buried. Saibaba demands their revival and prosecution.
- Importantly, he wants the HCA to revive one of the country’s most prestigious tournaments of the past—the Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup, which once served as the ideal springboard for aspiring cricketers aiming for a place in the Test team.
He also doesn’t spare past administrators. While praising P.R. Mansingh’s contributions, he blasts his vote-bank politics—handing clubs to unethical proxies to consolidate control. That seeded today’s mess. The Lodha Committee identified this conflict of interest. Nageshwar Rao, the last Supreme Court-appointed Ombudsman, tried to clean it up by removing voting rights of 57 club secretaries—but even he, Saibaba feels, “spared a few deliberately.”
He recalls the golden era of Ghulam Ahmed, when Hyderabad regularly contributed five to six players to the Indian XI. That’s history now. Today’s HCA can’t produce a stable Ranji squad, let alone national players.
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The final appeal is clear and urgent:
“Only the Supreme Court can save Hyderabad cricket. If the learned judges don’t intervene now, it’s over.”
And unless state agencies revive stalled probes and make examples of the culprits, cricket will continue to be a milking cow for the corrupt, especially in the league circuit.
So, here stands a man who walked away from a cushy bank job to build an institution brick by brick. Who never took a penny from cricket, but gave his life to it. While others played the game to enrich themselves, Saibaba played it for the children of the forgotten lanes of Hyderabad.
Maybe it’s time Indian cricket—and Indian justice—finally returned the favour.
