General body line in HCA
Majority members of the Hyderabad Cricket Association’s Apex Council have issued Show Cause notice to president Mohammed Azharuddin threatening him with suspension.
Five office-bearers of the nine-member Apex Council have served a Show Cause notice to Hyderabad Cricket Association president Mohammed Azharuddin accusing him of not playing by the rules of the body.
The letter dated June 14 lists out 16 complaints of misconduct by the former Indian captain and calls for his explanation within seven days, “failing which the Apex Council will initiate action in according with the Memorandum of Association and Rules and Regulations 2018.”
Azhar had earlier issued Show Cause notices to office-bearers, which they say he has no right to and that only the Apex Council is empowered to do the same.
“The Council in its meeting held on June 10 has decided after careful consideration of various complaints made by the members of the general body and also on its volition had duly deliberated about your various acts of commission and omission in its meeting held and has decided to issue the show cause notice to you according to Rule 41 (1) (b) and 15 (4) (c),” the notice signed by secretary R. Vijayanand, vice-president K. John Manoj, joint secretary Naresh Sharma, treasurer Surender Kumar Agarwal and councillor P. Anuradha.
Azhar had earlier termed the June 10 Apex Council meeting, which he did not attend, as illegal. “This post-facto action by a coterie of 5 members who are themselves facing an enquiry initiated much earlier in time is inherently illegal, malafide & vindictive,” Azhar said in a statement last week.
The five have a different take though. “Without attending any meetings of the Apex Council and writing letters to either cancel, postpone, prevaricate and also stating the meetings are illegal is highly deplorable and disturbing,” they say.
“The Apex Council is left with no option but to issue the showcause notice and invoking 40 (6) pending inquiry and proceeding into complaints and charges of misconduct the Apex Council has suspended you until final adjudication that included termination of your membership in HCA setting out the below mentioned details,” the notice to Azhar reads.
Azhar’s association with a cricket club in Dubai has been put on top of the list. “The complaint discloses that you are a mentor of a private cricket club in Dubai by name Northern Warriors which participates in a T10 cricket tournament which is unrecognised by the BCCI. The fact of you being a mentor has not been communicated to the HCA at any time. It is also apparent that you have not communicated the same to the BCCI. Therefore you being a mentor of an unrecognised tournament comes under the ambit of conflict of interest as envisaged under Rule 38 (1) (iii) of the Memorandum of Association and Rules and Regulations 2018 of HCA,” the notice says.
His retirement too has been questioned, technically. “You have addressed a letter to the Secretary of HCA on December 14, 2019, requesting inter alia to inform the BCCI about your retirement from active cricket from March 6, 2000, when you had played your last one-day international match. It is evident from the said letter that you have not informed the BCCI or the HCA about your retirement from active cricket before that letter. As you are aware a period of five years should have lapsed for you to contest an election from the time of you informing the HCA and the BCCI about your retirement,” the notice states.
In which case, how was he allowed to contest the September 2019 election, on the winning panel, is a pertinent question.
Then comes an embarrassing episode — appointment of Ombudsman. “You had illegally and unlawfully and in an unauthorised and dictatorial fashion tried to foist Justice Deepak Verma as an Ombudsman to HCA and unilaterally fixed his remuneration. The said illegal act speaks volumes of your actions against the collective will of the general body which had appointed Justice Nisar Ahmed Kakru as the Ombudsman and Justice Meena Kumari as the Ethics Officer,” the notice reads.
Among other complaints, the notice lists out trying to stall financial transactions and commitments of HCA, interference in selection committee matters, making a false police complaint against a current and former HCA official, changing the official password of the HCA E-mail, so that no other office bearer could have access to the Emails received from the BCCI and reply to the same, all of which have been categorised as “acts of indiscipline and misconduct which are detrimental to the interest of HCA and the game of cricket.”