Hyderabad president advised to pick between HCA and his academy

The BCCI's ombudsman, Justice Ajit Prakash Shah, has advised Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) president Arshad Ayub to choose between his role at the HCA and running his cricket academy "in order to not violate the principles of conflict of interest".

Shah said in a statement that Ayub "does not dispute the running of the Arshad Ayub Cricket Academy. As president of the HCA, he is likely to have a key role in the selecting the selectors, which by corollary, is likely to affect the manner in which the selections take place, and would lead to preferences given to certain students over others. There are, therefore, evident concerns in Mr Ayub's role as president of the HCA, and in running the academy."

Shah's statement was in reply to an application filed by RM Bhaskar on 12 February, 2016, alleging possible conflicts of interest for nine elected members of the HCA. The ombudsman said he communicated the allegations to all the concerned individuals and sought clarifications.

Aside from Ayub, the others against whom allegations were raised included HCA secretary K John Manoj, vice-presidents Narender Goud, Surender Aggarwal and Syed Moizuddin, joint-secretaries Vijayanand and Purushottam Agarwal, and executive committee members Adnan Mahmood and Srinivas Reddy.

The ombudsman noted that he was "troubled" by several members of the HCA running cricket academies while holding administrative appointments. His statement said: "These administrators usually select the selectors, and occasionally, even act as convenors of the selection committee for the various teams of the association, and, therefore, are in a position to influence decisions. When key office bearers are running their own cricket academies, it is natural that selectors will be influenced, and it definitely leads of a situation of conflict of interest."

Another point of worry, the ombudsman said, was that "several children and near relatives of administrators of the HCA appear to find places in the teams. While this is not to say that such selections are without merit, the large number of such selections raises some concerns.

"Further, many relatives of the HCA administrators appear to have been appointed at posts with the HCA, seemingly without following any procedure or due process. Explanations that such appointments are temporary are not satisfactory.

"The goings-on at the HCA are extremely disturbing, and immediate attempts should be made to curb the high prevalence of favouritism being practised by the association in all aspects of the game."