Raju & co cry foul as Arshad rushes through HCA

HYDERABAD:  The Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) on Sunday plunged into yet another crisis with 13 office-bearers — three vice-presidents and 10 executive committee members — shooting off resignation letters to its president Arshad Ayub.The move came soon after the HCA’s 77th annual general body meeting at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here. The 13 office-bearers were miffed that the HCA budget had been approved at the meeting despite their opposition. Among those  who resigned were HCA vice-presidents, SL Venkatapathy Raju, MV Sridhar and Venkat Reddy and EC members Sheshnarayan, Devaraj, Basavaraj, Surender Agarwal, Narender Goud, Purushotham Agarwal, Vijayanand, Srininvas Reddy, Moizuddin and Narsing Rao.“We had expressed our dissent in a letter long ago. We were not party to some of the accounts presented at the EC meeting last week, particularly the `9 crore canopy contract. We told the president that we had not approved the budget. We (10 EC members) went to the podium and voiced our opposition,” said Sheshnarayan. The budget was passed by a voice-vote.The meeting was also attended by Principal Secretary (sports) Chelleppa and was video-graphed. Arshad Ayub, however, said he would not accept the resignations. “It was an emotional decision. It is not an issue. It is an internal matter and will be sorted out in a day or two,” he said.But Sheshnarayan stuck to his guns. “We are firm in our stand. We have been pointing at the financial irregularities for a long time but HCA secretary Chalapathy has not bothered to listen to us. Many agreements were signed without the EC’s knowledge,” he alleged.One of the EC members termed the canopy contract, awarded during the construction of the international stadium, a big fraud. “The secretary has already paid `4 crore to a Mumbai firm but the work is  yet to begin. The president promised that canopy work will be completed before the India-England ODI in Oct. We cannot work in this environment. With the anti-corruption bureau also investigating the matter, how can we be party to it?” questioned another member. The Shivlal Yadav camp, however, said the budget was passed as per rules.