Hyderabad: Amid a legal tussle, with the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA), the Supreme Court on Monday, February 5, denied permission to former Indian cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin to attend the Annual General Meeting of the newly constituted body scheduled to be held on February 18.
The entire matter has been listed for hearing in April.
Mohammad Azharuddin has been involved in a legal tussle with the HCA. The cricket body has accused Azharuddin of alleged corruption and violation of norms.
As a result, he was disqualified from contesting in the elections and attending its Annual General Meeting by a committee headed by retired judge, Justice L Nageswara Rao, appointed by the apex court to oversee the HCA’s election process. He has been accused of violation of norms by serving as the President of Deccan Blues Club.
Azharuddin has however denied the allegations, terming them as false and motivated.
The committee was formed after reports of brewing differences surfaced between Azharuddin, who was the president of HCA, and its working members.
Azharuddin was elected president of the association in the last election held in September 2019. His tenure ended a year later. However, he continued to hold the position until the Supreme Court appointed a single-member panel to look into the issue.
Nageswara Rao removed the former cricketer from the list of voters for HCA polls that took place in October last year, on the grounds of conflict of interest as he was president of the Deccan Blues Cricket Club while serving as the president of HCA till early this year.
Nageswara Rao wrote to Azharuddin that he was removed from the voter list on the basis of the order passed by him on July 31, 2023.
“According to the order dated 31-07-2023, all the executive committee members of clubs in which a person/his family members are involved in the management of multiple clubs have been disqualified to either vote/contest in the ensuing elections to the HCA for one term or a period of three years, whichever is greater.
“As you are the President of Deccan Blue Cricket Club according to the information received by the Single Member Committee, you have been disqualified and not included in the voter’s list,” read the letter.
The letter mentions that on September 30, 2022, the supervisory committee appointed by the Supreme Court had asked Azharuddin to collect information relating to the details of all registered clubs which are members of the HCA.
In the letter dated October 10, 2022, sent by Deccan Blues Cricket Club secretary P.R. Man Singh, Azharuddin was shown as president of the Deccan Blues Cricket Club.
