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Former players, HCA officials seek BCCI help
Monday 08 January 2018

Former players, HCA officials seek BCCI help 
The group wants BCCI and CoA to depute Ratnakar Shetty to help adopt the reforms
Vexed by the failure of the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) office-bearers in getting the Justice (retd) RM Lodha Committee recommendations adopted in the last one year, a group of former players and officials asked the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) Committee of Administrators to depute Prof Ratnakar Shetty, GM Administration & Game Development, to help in the adoption of the reforms.
Emboldened by their morale victory in Sunday's SGM, the opposition have stepped up their attack on the HCA officials led by president Dr G Vivekanand. Fifteen members of the HCA sent an email to CoA's Vinod Rai and Diana Edulji saying that the Lodha reforms were not adopted in Sunday's meeting and the present set of officials had made a mess of things and were incapable of getting the work done.
"The undersigned submit that they are very keen to adopt the Justice Lodha Committee recommendations in a properly convened meeting after being duly served with a copy of the recommendations which are to be adopted," says the letter.
"Prof Ratnakar Shetty, GM-Administration & Game Development, BCCI, who is familiar with the affairs of the HCA may be deputed to assist the High Court appointed administrators namely Justice (retd) Anil R Dave and Justice (retd) GV Seethapathy to help in calling for a Special General Meeting to adopt the Justice Lodha Committee recommendations by suitably amending the Memorandum, Rules and Regulations of the HCA," says the letter signed among others by former BCCI president and Test player N Shivlal Yadav, former players Arshad Ayub, Mohd Azharuddin, Noel David, and former secretary PR Man Singh etc.
"Since November 2016, three different SGMs were convened and a one point agenda in all these meetings was to adopt the Lodha reforms. At all these meetings, the chairman declared that it has been resolved unanimously to implement the reforms. Then the chairman closes the meeting and walks off," said Man Singh while rebutting Vivek's claims of having adopted the reforms in Sunday's meeting.
"At no point of time have these officials explained to the members as to what actually has to be done. Probably they themselves don't know and were only keen on passing a resolution and seek funds from the BCCI," he added.
Man Singh also said that he, as a member of the Secunderabad Union Club, had taken pains to list out 29 amendments, deletions and reworded clauses and sent them to the HCA. "We requested the officials that these suggestions be put before the general body for its consideration and approval. Instead of taking up the amendments clause by clause which had to be approved by two thirds of the members present and voting, Vivek, when he was getting cornered, just announced that the resolution is unanimously passed and the reforms are adopted. Nobody knows which particular clause is amended etc. Everything is ambiguous," said Man Singh and added that the reforms should be adopted properly and fresh elections held at the earliest to get rid of all the confusion.
In a related development, Vivek, in a WhatsApp message, stated the reasons for not allowing Azhar to attend the meeting initially. "Please note that he is not a member of National Sports Club. He did not have a valid card as the above card was signed by the suspended secretary," Vivek clarified.
But Vivek's arguments stand no ground as secretary T Shesh Narayan had invited Azhar to attend the meeting as a former international player. The letter had been sent much before Shesh was suspended by the Apex Council. "The suspension came only on January 5. The president had to take a call and inform us at least a day before if we were eligible to attend the meeting or not. He cannot shoo us away from the venue. It has been a deliberate attempt to humiliate me and I am not going to take it lying down," Azhar said.
Sources also said that Azhar was vice-president of the National Cricket Club and the list of office-bearers of the club was submitted to the HCA in January last year. Hence, there is no way Azhar can be called a proxy.

Vexed by the failure of the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) office-bearers in getting the Justice (retd) RM Lodha Committee recommendations adopted in the last one year, a group of former players and officials asked the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) Committee of Administrators to depute Prof Ratnakar Shetty, GM Administration & Game Development, to help in the adoption of the reforms.

Emboldened by their morale victory in Sunday's SGM, the opposition have stepped up their attack on the HCA officials led by president Dr G Vivekanand. Fifteen members of the HCA sent an email to CoA's Vinod Rai and Diana Edulji saying that the Lodha reforms were not adopted in Sunday's meeting and the present set of officials had made a mess of things and were incapable of getting the work done.

"The undersigned submit that they are very keen to adopt the Justice Lodha Committee recommendations in a properly convened meeting after being duly served with a copy of the recommendations which are to be adopted," says the letter.

"Prof Ratnakar Shetty, GM-Administration & Game Development, BCCI, who is familiar with the affairs of the HCA may be deputed to assist the High Court appointed administrators namely Justice (retd) Anil R Dave and Justice (retd) GV Seethapathy to help in calling for a Special General Meeting to adopt the Justice Lodha Committee recommendations by suitably amending the Memorandum, Rules and Regulations of the HCA," says the letter signed among others by former BCCI president and Test player N Shivlal Yadav, former players Arshad Ayub, Mohd Azharuddin, Noel David, and former secretary PR Man Singh etc.

"Since November 2016, three different SGMs were convened and a one point agenda in all these meetings was to adopt the Lodha reforms. At all these meetings, the chairman declared that it has been resolved unanimously to implement the reforms. Then the chairman closes the meeting and walks off," said Man Singh while rebutting Vivek's claims of having adopted the reforms in Sunday's meeting.

"At no point of time have these officials explained to the members as to what actually has to be done. Probably they themselves don't know and were only keen on passing a resolution and seek funds from the BCCI," he added.

Man Singh also said that he, as a member of the Secunderabad Union Club, had taken pains to list out 29 amendments, deletions and reworded clauses and sent them to the HCA. "We requested the officials that these suggestions be put before the general body for its consideration and approval. Instead of taking up the amendments clause by clause which had to be approved by two thirds of the members present and voting, Vivek, when he was getting cornered, just announced that the resolution is unanimously passed and the reforms are adopted. Nobody knows which particular clause is amended etc. Everything is ambiguous," said Man Singh and added that the reforms should be adopted properly and fresh elections held at the earliest to get rid of all the confusion.

In a related development, Vivek, in a WhatsApp message, stated the reasons for not allowing Azhar to attend the meeting initially. "Please note that he is not a member of National Sports Club. He did not have a valid card as the above card was signed by the suspended secretary," Vivek clarified.

But Vivek's arguments stand no ground as secretary T Shesh Narayan had invited Azhar to attend the meeting as a former international player. The letter had been sent much before Shesh was suspended by the Apex Council. "The suspension came only on January 5. The president had to take a call and inform us at least a day before if we were eligible to attend the meeting or not. He cannot shoo us away from the venue. It has been a deliberate attempt to humiliate me and I am not going to take it lying down," Azhar said.

Sources also said that Azhar was vice-president of the National Cricket Club and the list of office-bearers of the club was submitted to the HCA in January last year. Hence, there is no way Azhar can be called a proxy.

(Courtesy: The Times of India)

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