It will be a straight contest for the post of presidentship between former India off-spinner Arshad Ayub and incumbent chief G. Vinod when the Annual General Meeting and the elections will be held to various posts in the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) on September 7.
With the withdrawals coming to an end on Saturday, the presidential battle has a tinge of history. Former HCA secretary P. R. Man Singh reminds this will be the first time there will be an election for the president’s post after 1964. “Then, the battle was between Maj. N. K. Guruswamy and J. Ramakrishna Rao, the latter being one of the youngest (in late 20s) to contest the post which the former won,” recalls Man Singh in a chat.
Interestingly, after that 1964 elections, the HCA constitution was amended stating the senior most vice-president will automatically be the next president and it continued till 2012 when another amendment made a contest mandatory for presidentship. By coincidence it was Mr. Vinod who was declared elected president after Mr. Ayub withdrew from the race just before the election day.
“I am fortunate, I can say, that I was there in 1964 elections and now will be a witness to the September 7 polls. Incidentally, I along with Mr. Ramakrishna Rao and Mr. K. S. Iyengar, are the only survivors of that AGM,” recalls Mr. Singh.
For the secretaryship, it will be another straight fight between incumbent joint secretary Seshadri Venkateshwaran and John Manoj. Others in the fray for posts include ex-MP G. Vivekanand, M.V. Sridhar for the post of vice-presidentship from the ruling panel.
Following is the final list of contestants left in the fray for some key posts: Arshad Ayub group: president – Arshad Ayub, secretary – John Manoj, treasurer – Devaraj, joint-secretaries – Purushotham Agarwal and Vijayanand, vice-presidents – Narender Goud, P. Yadgiri, Prakash Chand Jain, Surender Agarwal, Moizuddin.
Ruling group: president – G. Vinod, secretary - S. Venkateshwaran, treasurer – Naresh Sharma, joint secretaries – Basavaraju (commercial taxes) and Gerard Carr, vice-presidents – G. Vivekanand, M.V. Sridhar, E. Venkatram Reddy, T. Seshnarayan, Kishen Rao.
