The shocking performance of Hyderabad team in the recent match against Rajasthan in Ranji championship is not an accidental one. This shameful day for the Hyderabad cricket was waiting on the cards for many days. This can be attributed to a series of misdeeds ignored by Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) over a considerable period of time.
This is the region, which set forth a team that scored highest numbers of runs in history of Ranji championship just 6 years back. It produced gems of cricket like Ghulam Ahmed, M L Jaisimha, Mohammad Azharuddin, Shivlal Yadav, Venkatapathy Raju and V V S Laxman.
But within no time it got disintegrated to produce a team that scores the lowest ever total in the Ranji championship. The poor performance of Hyderabad team in recent Ranji match is only a part of the failure of HCA. It is quite evident with the performance of its under-19 team in the Vinoo Mankad South Zone one-day tournament in Goa which lost all five matches.
Many factors can be attributed for the descent of the HCA. One among them is the mushrooming coaching camps all over the city, that made a difference not for best but for the worst. The coaching camps in the city started in the early 80s and since then, they turned into a huge money-spinning businesses. In order to stay in business, these camps are into influence games through which they seek to push their wards into the team, irrespective of their skills. This creates disunity in the team. Their emergence has made the HCA complacent to the point that it has been neglecting its own camps. Today, it doesn’t has a full time coach. HCA did not care to reform even after getting demoted to weaker Plate division from Elite group in the previous season.
Apart from the pressure and influence from these coaching camps, favoritism, neglect of the local league structure, HCA club politics and ad nauseum play their part. Especially, favoritism exists in all age categories of Hyderabad cricket, from the Ranji Trophy to the under-13 events. If we take a closer look into the issue, we can see how players like Ambati Rayudu were ignored and favorites of HCA bosses were selected into the team.
The situation is not going to change, if few coaches resign or few players are replaced. A reform in the selection and keeping itself away from the sheer politics is what HCA requires now.
Courtesy: Indian Express