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Hyderabad Cricket Association In Crisis As Arrests Mount And Corruption Cases Pile Up

Jatin

HCA officials have been accused of stadium construction rregularities [Source: @cricmawa/x.com]HCA officials have been accused of stadium construction rregularities [Source: @cricmawa/x.com]

The Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) is once again in the eye of the storm and this time, things are getting uglier by the day. What started more than a decade ago as murmurs of mismanagement has now snowballed into a full-blown mess with the CID arresting five high-profile HCA officials, including president A Jagan Mohan Rao, treasurer CJ Srinivas Rao and CEO Suneel Kante.

CID Tightens Grip on HCA with Fresh Arrests and Multiple FIRs

According to a Times of India report, a total of eight cases have now been filed against HCA office-bearers with five currently under investigation and three waiting to go to trial. And the list of accused isn’t short of big names either, including former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin, Test cricketers Arshad Ayub and Shivlal Yadav, Congress MLA G Vinod and even the current HCA secretary R Devraj, who is now on the run.

It All Started Back in 2011

The trail of corruption dates back to 2011 when complaints started coming in from multiple club secretaries. C Babu Rao Sagar from Sagar Cricket Club, D Manikyam representing Roshan Ara Recreation Club and Aijaj Ali Qureishi of Shalimar Cricket Eleven Club filed petitions in the ACB court, accusing HCA officials of fund misappropriation and shady deals.

The court swung into action and passed on the complaints to the ACB, which led to the CIU registering two FIRs that year.

Inflated Costs And Stadium Scandals

The first FIR accused Shivlal Yadav, Arshad Ayub, DS Chalapathi, Naresh Sharma and P Yadagiri of inflating the cost of building the RGI Cricket Stadium at Uppal, from INR 30.26 crore to a whopping INR 108 crore. The complaint alleged negligence and kickbacks, claiming that bucket chairs were billed at INR 910 per piece when the market rate was just INR 450 which led to a loss of over INR 2 crore.

The second FIR, based on D Manikyam’s complaint, pointed fingers at the same group, along with K John Manoj and G Vinod, for misusing funds during the purchase of floodlights, refrigerators, bowling machines and other stadium gear.

Then came a third FIR in 2014, this time from Aijaj Ali Qureishi. It accused the likes of Arshad Ayub, R Devraj and others of colluding to award canopy contracts at the Uppal stadium that caused a loss of over INR 3 crore.

Though chargesheets were filed between 2016 and 2020, the trials remain stuck due to a stay order from the High Court.

A New Twist in 2023

Things took another sharp turn in October 2023 when HCA CEO Suneel Kante filed four fresh criminal cases. These cases targeted former office-bearers like Azharuddin, R Vijay Anand and Surender Agarwal, accusing them of misappropriating INR 3.85 crore meant for equipment purchases at the RGI Stadium.

And now, with the recent arrests of top HCA brass, the heat is truly on. What started as whispers of corruption has now become a full-blown house of cards waiting to tumble.

For fans of the game in Hyderabad, it is a sorry state of affairs. The city's cricketing legacy, which was once a proud nursery of Indian talent, is now buried under corruption cases, pending trials and a cricket board that seems more focused on shady tenders than nurturing young talent.

With the CID tightening the screws and court proceedings expected to resume soon, it remains to be seen how many more skeletons tumble out of the HCA’s already cluttered closet.