Hyderabad Cricket Association officials draw flak for Vijay Hazare selection

HYDERABAD: The selection of the Hyderabad team for the

Vijay Hazare Trophy

has raised several questions about the functioning of the

Hyderabad Cricket Association

(

HCA

). The drafting of selectors at the eleventh hour to select the team has not gone and a petition was filed with the Telangana State Human Rights Commission (TSHRC) on Thursday about the grave irregularities in selection. It is alleged that more than half-a-dozen of the selected players don’t merit a place in the team.


Rohit Rayudu (741 runs), Md Junaid Ali (704), M Abhirath Reddy (694), G Arjun (45 wickets) and G Aniketh Reddy (30 wkts) in league matches this season are some who missed out.

However, HCA has no one to blame for the mess. With the officials ‘unable’ to conduct the AGM, an ad-hoc selection committee, comprising Shivaji Yadav (chairman), Ahmed Quadri and M Abhinav Kumar, was constituted for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

One expected the same panel to select the team for the Vijay Hazare Trophy too but, it is learnt, the selectors refused to toe the office-bearers line and stepped down. “There is no point in picking teams as per the directions of the office-bearers. The selectors have some values and integrity, they cannot stoop down to any level as those people think,” sources close to one of the selectors told TOI on Thursday.

According to sources, HCA president Mohd Azharuddin had sent out a mail to secretary R

Vijayanand

saying “As we are falling short of time and two selectors are not available to do the selection of team, I would like to nominate Arvind Shetty, Habib Ahmed & Abhinav Kumar to go ahead with the selection process and make the team at the earliest. I request you to convene the selection committee and inform them to make the team and keep me informed after the team is made.”

Sources said Abhinav refused to be part of the panel and Habib too declined. The desperate office-bearers then roped in Anwar Ahmed Khan to join Arvind. “Neither of them have watched the players so how could they select the time in just an hour or so. Can they recognise the 22 players who have been selected? It is more that they have given their assent to the selected team,” sources said.

Azhar had also appealed to the

Apex Council

members to understand the urgency of the situation. “And this is also to bring to the notice of all the Apex members that with very less time in hand I’m forced to take this step of making the team in a hurry and I request you to kindly let the selection process happen smoothly , for the benefit of Hyderabad cricket Association,” Azhar wrote.

However, not all members of the Apex Council are happy with the developments. At least three of them are insisting that there should be a five-member selection panel.

Secretary Vijayanand, however, defended the selection and also alleged that some members were preventing former players from accepting the selectors’ job. “The players have been selected on merit and this is the best team that we are sending. It is unfortunate that the selectors are being bullied by some members and asking them not to be a selector,” he said.

What is intriguing is that the secretary had filed a 170-page counter in the court recently opposing the appointment of the Ombudsman on the ground that it should be done by the General Body but is party to the haphazard appointment of the selectors. According to the rule book, the senior selectors are appointed by the

Cricket Advisory Committee

, which is formed by the HCA members at the General Body. With no AGM being held all the appointments have come to a standstill and there is no attempt to have the AGM anytime soon. It is also learnt that the last Apex Council meeting was held in November.

Will the HCA continue to function in a haphazard manner?

Petition to TSHRC

Meanwhile, the All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations, on Thursday, submitted a petition to Telangana State Human Rights Commission chairman Justice Gunda Chandraiah regarding the "grave violations of human rights by HCA in selection of the team for the Vijay Hazare Trophy".

The confederation said: "There are so many irregularities taking place in selection of teams. It is a gross violation of Lodha Commission recommendations which shall be treated as murder of Indian talent. Most of the players selected are low-performers and they are selected fraudulently as the team owners decide on the selection of players in the state teams.”