Winds of change: Sarat Chandra to head ACA

HYDERABAD: The winds of change have virtually nullified the influence of erstwhile president G Gangaraju in the Andhra Cricket Association (ACA). After ruling the cricket body with an iron hand for the last one decade, the former Narsapur MP has been outwitted by the ruling party YSR Congress Party.
In what has turned out to be a unanimous election only six contenders filed their papers for the six posts of the Apex Council as the last day of filing the nomination papers came to an end on Thursday.The scrutiny of nominations will be done on Friday and the final list of candidates will be published on Monday. Thereafter, the winners will be officially announced by the Election Officer Bhanwar Lal as there is no need for an election on September 27. Hence, it is just a matter of formality and the new body is likely to take over next week.
Sources said the coup has been engineered by the ruling party in the state. “The government got to know about the unsavoury happenings in the ACA and therefore they stepped in to bring some order into the cricket association,” a source said.
It is learnt that the party’s strongman V Vijaya Sai Reddy has played a key role in ending Gangaraju’s reign in the ACA. Sai Reddy’s son-in-law Rohit Reddy’s brother P Sarat Chandra Reddy, who is the director of the Aurobindo Pharma, is going to be the new president. VVSSKK Yachendra (vice-president), S Gopinath Reddy (treasurer) and R Dhanunjaya Reddy (Councillor) are also believed to be close to the YSRCP strongman.
Sources said that the YSRCP was keen on having a unanimous election and therefore struck a compromise with Gangaraju and gave his men two posts. They are: V Durga Prasad (secretary) and KS Ramachandra Rao (joint secretary).
“One shouldn’t be surprised if both of Gangaraju’s men are eased out of the body after a couple of months. One positive thing is that Gangaraju can no longer call the shots. Nothing in the ACA was done without his permission and those days are now history. Hopefully, things will be streamlined in the coming months and all the anomalies are rectified,” a former ACA office-bearer said.
One interesting point is that five of the contestants have filed their nomination on behalf of clubs. Only Durga Prasad is from Krishna District Cricket Association. The standing of the clubs, which haven’t been actively promoting cricket for the last two to three decades, in the ACA has been questioned time and again.