Former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin was ‘cheated’ of the opportunity to contest in the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) elections earlier in the year despite getting clearance from the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) legal cell.
It is still an unknown fact whether the BCCI had written to the HCA saying that there was no valid ground to prevent Azhar from taking part in the elections.
It is also not known that which party is speaking the truth. Is it the BCCI or the HCA? Several questions have been raised ever since knowing that the clearance from BCCI was given. Sources close to BCCI told Times of India that the HCA’s ad-hoc committee chairman Prakash Chand Jain had sent around four emails asking the fact that whether the former captain is eligible to take part in the elections. It is also learnt that Jain’s last message was way back on 10th January 2017.
The BCCI had also sent a forceful reply on January 12 that the legal department of the board has cleared Azhar and hence there was no case pending against him. He was even given the nod by BCCI to contest in the state elections, but his nomination was rejected by the Returning Officer Rajeev Reddy claiming that there was no reply from the BCCI on his ban issue.
However, Jain denied the allegations of him receiving any email from BCCI.
“I had written three mails to the BCCI on the issue. But unfortunately, the BCCI officials didn’t bother to reply. Even the RO had written to the BCCI. I am not sure if he got any reply. If he had gotten a reply, it would have been brought to our notice,” Jain was quoted by the TOI on Tuesday.
When Acting President CK Khanna asked to confirm whether Azhar was cleared by the legal cell or not he said,
“This issue was discussed with the Committee of Administrators (CoA) and office-bearers where it was informed that BCCI’s legal team had cleared Azhar’s name. This matter has been recommended to the general body.”
“It’s not a question of favouring him or not favouring him. There is no evidence against him, and therefore legally you can’t stop him from getting his dues when the legal department of the board has cleared him,” a top board official told TOI.
It also added that if the BCCI had any grudges with Azhar, then he wouldn’t have been invited to Green Park in Kanpur where India played their 500th Test match.