Hyderabad, Aug. 14: The pretenders are out and contenders in as battle lines for the Hyderabad Cricket Association elections scheduled for August 22 have been drawn. On Saturday, the last date for withdrawal of nominations, 95 candidates backed out from the initial list of 131 to leave 36 fighting for 18 posts.
Elections will be held for all posts barring that of the president’s as Arshad Ayub, being the senior most vice-president, has been nominated to take over as president as per the HCA constitution.
While there are multiple contests for vice-presidents and executive committee members, it’s a straight fight for the secretary, joint secretary and treasurer’s posts.
Sitting members and former India players N. Shivlal Yadav and S.L. Venkatpathi Raju are alongside E. Venkatram Reddy, D. Kishan Rao, former MLC Kasani Gyaneshwar and MP G. Vivekanand in a bunch of six who are vying for the three vice-presidents’ posts.
In the fight for the secretary’s chair, manager of the 1983 World Cup winning team and former HCA secretary, P. R. Man Singh is pitted against D.S. Chalapathi, who looks to graduate from being a joint secretary last year.
S. Venkateswaran and N. Prahlad vie to be joint secretary while Naresh Sharma is set to take on the incumbent, P. Yadagiri, in a slugfest to be the treasuer.
The contest for the executive committee members’ seats is wider with 14 in the ring for the six slots allocated to ‘A’ division clubs. The fight for lower division seats is relatively light — there are three in the running for two seats each in the ‘B’ and ‘D’ divisions while ‘C’ has four in fray for two posts.
Last men standing
Vice-presidents — 3 posts, 6 contestants:
1. E. Venkatram Reddy
2. N. Shivlal Yadav
3. Venkatapathi Raju
4. Kasani Gyaneshwar
5. D. Kishan Rao
6. G. Vivekanand
Secretary — 1 post, 2 contestants:
1. P. R. Man Singh
2. D. S. Chalapathi
Joint secretary — 1 post, 2 contestants:
1. S. Venkateswaran
2. N. Prahlad
Treasurer — 1post, 2 contestants:
1. Naresh Sharma
2. P. Yadagiri
Executive Committee members — 12 posts in all
A division — 6 posts, 14 contestants:
1. Rajender Yadav (Gowlipura CC), 2. G. Ramakrishna (Gemini Friends), 3. S. Arun Kumar (National Insurance), 4. R. P. Rao (Imperial), 5. M. A. Moiz (Apex), 6. Bhanu Prasad (Kakatiya), 7. R. Vijayanand (Abhinav Colts), 8. Purushottam Agarwal (Hyderabad Patriots), 9. Narender Goud (Goud’s XI), 10. Sesh Narayan (Budding Stars), 11. Syed Moizuddin (Classic), 12. Vinod Kumar (Cambridge), 13. Dr K. V. Ramana (Oxford Blues), 14. R. M. Bhaskar (Sultan Shahi)
B division — 2 posts, 3 contestants:
1. R. Devraj (Sungrace), 2. K. John Manoj (New Stars), 3. T. Basavaraj (Navjeevan Friends)
C division — 2 posts, 4 contestants:
1. Riaz Qureshi (Shalimar), 2, E. Gopal (Sunshine), 3. M. Srinivas Reddy (Universal), 4. Chitti Sridhar (Acrylic)
D division — 2 posts, 3 contestants:
1. D. Narsing Rao (Satyam CC), 2. Srinivas Chakravarthy (YMRC), 3. Surender Agarwal (Time)