HYDERABAD: If there is a song to describe the journey of former India skipper Mohammad Azharuddin as a potential administrator, it has to be ‘The Times They Are a-changin’. More than two years after his nomination for the post of Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) president was rejected by the then returning officer, the road ahead for the controversial India great seems free of impediments this time around.
With the elections set to be held on September 27, the 56-year-old filed his nomination papers at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium on Wednesday. At the end of the day, Azhar was the only president-hopeful who filed the papers. Unlike during the January 2017 elections, the former wristy batsman seems to be enjoying substantial support from members of the state body.
To add to that, sources close to the election officer VS Sampath said that the former election commissioner does not find any reasons to question the eligibility of Azhar. Asked whether Azhar falls in the category of eligible candidates, sources said: “He is eligible on the basis of him being an international player. His name is in the electoral roll. Although, further scrutiny could be done. He was not an HCA member last time, as there were no provisions for former internationals to become direct members. Since the implementation of Lodha guidelines, he has become a member. So, eligibility does not seem to be a concern.”
However, his rejection then was based on account of him not producing an NOC from the BCCI that could clear his name from the match-fixing charges. Whether that would come back to haunt him remains to be seen as he hasn’t got the NOC from the board yet. Things will be clear when the scrutiny of the nominations will be done on September 21.
Even though Azhar’s camp has former internationals Arshad Ayub and N Shivlal Yadav in its ranks, the story is different in the other. They are yet to come up with a strong name to take on Azhar. A total of nine contestants filed their nominations for the six different seats in the Apex Council. Owing to the Lodha reforms impact, many big names are out of the race. This has instilled some hope among the members.
“This time, it will mostly be fresh faces taking care of the administration, as old names are out. This will hopefully ensure smooth running of the state body,” vice-president hopeful Vikram Mansingh — son of legendary India manager PR Mansingh — who will be contesting for an office-bearers post for the first time, told this newspaper. Mansingh too belongs to Azhar’s faction, and so do candidates such as Ajmal Asad (secretary) and P Srinivas (joint-secretary).
There are two more days until the nomination filings end.