With selection committee declared illegal, Hyderabad left in a lurch

The COA are in a fix over the rule book. As per the rules, all selectors are appointed and cleared at the annual general body meeting. The HCA annual general body meeting has not been held for nearly two years now.

When contacted, Justice Dave said that the decision on the Hyderabad team travelling to Delhi for the Vijay Hazare Trophy will be taken by Tuesday afternoon.

“At the moment, I can’t say anything. The final decision will be taken by Tuesday afternoon,” Dave told The Indian Express.

In the past few months, the two groups in the HCA Apex Council have seen an ugly rivalry escalating with Hyderabad sending two teams for an invitational tournament organised by the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) and two groups organising two different tournaments in the city.

With the fight continuing, Hyderabad’s former players led by former India captain Mohd. Azharuddin and VVS Laxman, in consultation with the two rival groups set up a steering committee to ensure cricket carries on. The steering committee nominated former spinner Noel David as the chairman of the selection committee with Vijay Mohan Raj, Vivek Jaisimha, Arvind Shetty and Noshir Mehta as other members.

However, the steering committee completely by-passed the old selection committee which was nominated by HCA in their annual general body meeting. The COA have now declared the selection committee formed by the steering committee illegal. COA also maintain that the steering committee can’t appoint a selection committee and it is the general body or Apex Council which has the power to change selection committee members.

Interestingly, on September 12, the day the High Court was supposed to announce its final order, the HCA announced its Vijay Hazare team.

Two selectors resign from JKCA

It’s not only Hyderabad which is facing the turbulence, the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association too is facing some heat as four selectors resigned from their post. The selectors blamed their professional player Irfan Pathan as the reason for putting in their papers. Dhruv Mahajan, one of the selectors in their email to JKCA CEO, have blamed Irfan Pathan of too much interference in the selection process, calling it as a sheer violation of constitution.

The selectors alleged that since the day of joining, Pathan had not played a single game and he had to undergo a fitness test if he wanted to be a mentor-cum-player for JKCA in the forthcoming season. Pathan was unavailable for comment whereas JKCA CEO Ashiq Ali Bukhari didn’t reply to text messages.