Azhar, who played 99 Tests for India, immediately spoke about bringing back the lost glory of Hyderabad cricket.
Life comes a full circle for the former India skipper Mohammad Azharuddin, once banned for life after being indicted in match-fixing probe, when he was elected president of the Hyderabad Cricket Association (Telangana state) by a massive margin on Friday.
Azhar got 147 votes of the total 223 polled, thus winning by a margin of 74 votes over his nearest rival Prakash Chand who could only muster 73. Four members out of total 227 remained absent.
The 57-year-old wristy batsman led his panel to a clean-sweep in the elections, winning all the six posts — five office-bearers and one councillor. Former secretary John Manoj has been elected vice-president, while R Vijayanand is the new secretary. Naresh Sharma swept to victory for the joint secretary post and Surender Agarwal will be the new treasurer. P. Anuradha, the lone women contestant, was elected by a thin margin to councillor’s post.
Azhar, who played 99 Tests for India, immediately spoke about bringing back the lost glory of Hyderabad cricket.
Apart from Azhar, the BCCI had also imposed a five-year ban on former Indian cricketers Ajay Jadeja and Manoj Prabhakar.
Even though Azhar’s life ban was lifted by the Andhra Pradesh high court in 2012, but BCCI remained firm in its decision to not allow the tainted skipper inside any of the cricket stadium. In fact, a member of the disciplinary committee told DNA then during India-New Zealand Test in Kanpur (September 2016), which was also India’s 500th Test, that “there has been an understanding within the BCCI to keep these tainted players out of the corridors of cricket till now”.
He was obviously upset over then BCCI president Anurag Thakur’s decision to invite Azhar for felicitation alongside other former skippers of repute. It was all along believed within the BCCI that late South African captain, Hansie Cronje, courageous confession “that Azhar introduced bookies to him” was more to be believed than Azhar’s claims of “victimisation for belonging to a minority community”. However, Thakur’s move to felicitate Azhar made sure that he was no longer “untouchable” for cricket community now.
Son rises in Odisha, too
In Cuttack, Sanjay Behera, son of former Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) secretary Ashirbad Behera, defeated Naba Ranjan Patnaik for the post of secretary.
Not to forget that Ashirbad was arrested on recently for his alleged links in Artha Tatwa (AT) Group chit fund scam. Pankaj Lochan Mohanty was elected as president while Mehtab Khan is new joint secretary. Akshaya Kumar Samant and Bikash Pradhan have been declared winners as vice-president and treasurer respectively.
HPCA remains with Dhumals
As expected, it as clean-sweep for Anurag Thakur’s backed panel in Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association polls on Friday.
While his younger brother Arun Kumar Dhumal was declared president unopposed during its Annual General Meeting, Una district’s Sumit Sharma became the new secretary.
Anurag ruled HPCA for nearly 17 years since becoming the youngest president in 2000. Though, he was instrumental in bringing up Himachal into the international cricket map by building a stadium in Dharamshala, but he will also be remembered to turn HPCA into a family affair by making his own family members and sympathisers as life members by amending the constitution.
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