Conflict and unrest in Hyderabad cricket
HYDERABAD: The coldest month of the year is not cold enough to bring down the temperature in the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) corridors. The association beleaguered by allegations of corruption and misuse of authority saw the latest in the series of acrimonies on Thursday when a member accused the president of conflict of interest. The president denied the charge.
Former MP and Amberpet Cricket Club representative in the HCA, V Hanumantha Rao called a press conference to level a range of charges against president G Vivekanand. Most of the allegations stem from the sponsorship contract signed (terminated later) between Visaka Industries Private Limited (owned by Vivekanand) and the HCA years ago.
“The contract was signed only for international matches as there was no IPL during that time, but Visaka has claimed Rs 75 lakh per IPL season quite a few times as compensation amount,” Rao said. Queried by Express on the issue, Vivekanand said, “A court case has allowed advertising rights to Visaka for all matches, including the IPL, being played at the stadium. When those rights were not given to Visaka, compensation of Rs 75 lakh was paid for only two years by the home IPL franchise, not the HCA.”
The contract was reportedly worth Rs 6.5 crore, but Vivekanand’s company had paid about Rs 4.3 crore, an allegation reiterated by the All India Congress Committee secretary Rao. To that, Vivekanand, a former MP himself, said, “According to the contract, the new stadium was supposed to be named after Visaka Industries, but that did not happen. All I got was one end named after the company. And I had already paid Rs 4.3 crore by then. However, I did not want to create a ruckus and left the matter as it was.”
Even before Vivekanand had joined office at the HCA, there were conflict of interest allegations, something that has resurfaced time and again since then. Him being an advisor to the Telangana government has also caused unrest. “Vivek himself signed the sponsorship agreement with HCA for the construction of the stadium. Now he is the HCA president. There is conflict of interest. He is also the advisor to the state government,” said Rao.
Vivekanand has also drawn criticism from former international cricketers from the city, including Shivlal Yadav, after Mohammad Azharuddin was stopped for an hour before being allowed to attend the January 7 special general meeting. In that meeting, the ruling group claimed to have unanimously passed a resolution adopting all Lodha Committee guidelines, although many members said this was not done.
The state body’s ombudsman is supposed to hear the case pertaining to Vivekanand on January 31, after petitions were filed before him. “The matter is already pending in front of the ombudsman. What is the need to create a scene before that?” Vivekanand said.
vishal@newindianexpress.com