Shadow Syndicate in HCA

By Vinay Rao

This is no longer about cricket.
It is about control.

The Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) stands at the edge of yet another internal rupture — not between reformers and traditionalists, not between competing visions for the game — but between ambition and entitlement.

Behind the scorecards, beneath the smiling press conferences, a darker machinery hums steadily:

Selections finance power.
Elections protect it.
And a small circle of powerful men are determined to own the voice of the game.

A pliable president.
An obedient secretary.
A rubber-stamp executive.

Control the voice. Control the narrative. Control the institution.

Where Dreams Become Currency

It begins innocently — or so it appears.

An academy promises discipline, exposure, and that irresistible phrase whispered into anxious parental ears: “Pathway to India.”

Children arrive in oversized pads.
Parents arrive with bank drafts.

The attrition rate is ruthless. By U-16, most dreams are quietly buried. But long before the dream dies, the system has already extracted its profit.

A few promising players are retained — not merely as cricketers, but as assets.

Assets to be placed.
Positioned.
Packaged.

Because in this ecosystem, talent alone is not enough. Alignment matters.

The Rise of the Operator

Every compromised system produces a central figure — not constitutionally powerful, not officially decisive — but functionally indispensable.

The Operator.

He begins as a facilitator: arranging nets, securing trial dates, smoothing paperwork. Invisible labor. Necessary, but unnoticed.

Then he studies the pressure points.

He learns which club secretary controls league entries.
Which selector answers which call.
Which association member can mobilize votes.
Which ambition can be leveraged.

Soon, nothing moves without passing through him.

He becomes the bridge between aspiration and access. And bridges, in power structures, are rarely neutral.

When League Cricket Becomes a Trading Floor

League cricket was once the crucible of merit. Today, it increasingly resembles a marketplace.

Playing XI spots become strategic placements.
Tournament exposure becomes bargaining leverage.
State probables lists become negotiated documents.

Selections are no longer purely performance-based. They are calibrated around loyalty, influence, and political arithmetic.

Money from aspirational families flows into academies.
From academies into influence networks.
From influence networks into election campaigns.

Clubs morph into voting blocs.
Selectors become political investments.
Elections become instruments to secure the selection economy.

The circle is complete.

The Feudal Bloc

But the Operator is not the architect. He is the instrument.

Behind him stands a feudal power bloc — a handful of entrenched club secretaries who treat the association not as a democratic body, but as inherited territory.

Their playbook is simple:

Control key committees.
Destabilize independent administrations.
Manufacture crises to justify intervention.
Install loyalists.

When an elected body shows spine, it is sabotaged from within. Whispers begin. No-confidence murmurs circulate. Files stall. Allies defect.

The objective is not governance.

The objective is vacancy.

Because vacancy creates opportunity — the opportunity to install “His Master’s Voice.” A president who echoes instructions. A secretary who signs without scrutiny. An apex council that consults before it decides.

Not the association’s voice.
Not the players’ voice.
But theirs.

When Brokers Challenge Barons

Power structures are rarely stable. Eventually, the Operator grows ambitious.

He doesn’t just mobilize votes — he calculates margins.
He doesn’t just execute strategy — he shapes it.

And that is when mistrust begins.

The feudal bloc that once empowered him starts to worry. Files are reopened. Alliances recalibrated. Old understandings quietly revisited.

The upcoming election is not procedural.

It is a purge disguised as a poll.

The Invisible Casualties

Lost in this war of control are those who still believe cricket should be about cricket.

The honest selector sidelined for refusing calls.
The player who scored runs but lacked backing.
The coach who refused to “coordinate.”
The parent who believed merit would speak for itself.

They are not invited to strategy dinners.
They are not factored into vote calculations.

They are collateral damage.

Designed Instability

What we are witnessing is not dysfunction. It is design.

Destabilize.
Discredit.
Dissolve.
Reinstall.
Repeat.

Every administration that attempts independence is weakened until it bends — or breaks. Stability is dangerous to those who thrive in chaos. Because stability reduces leverage.

The association becomes a revolving door of fragile regimes, each more dependent than the last.

The Reckoning

This election will decide more than office-bearers.

It will answer a deeper question:

Will the HCA be governed by constitution — or by cabal?
Will selections return to scoreboards — or remain in backrooms?
Will elected voices speak freely — or become echoes?

Institutions rarely collapse from external attack. They erode from internal greed — when brokers challenge barons, when ambition devours loyalty, when control becomes more important than credibility.

Cricket associations are built on trust.

Trust that performance matters.
Trust that elections reflect genuine will.
Trust that governance serves the game.

Break that trust long enough, and the institution hollows out.

Matches will continue. Caps will be handed out. Press releases will celebrate “development.”

But beneath the applause, the soul of the game will have been quietly repossessed.

And once that happens, no election can win it back.