India vs West Indies: ‘I never thought I would get to sit in a BCCI AGM’ - Mohammed Azharuddin

Under the new BCCI administration, Azhar is well and truly back on the cricket circuit. He was a chief guest at BCCI President Sourav Ganguly’s felicitation by Cricket association of Bengal at Kolkata.

It’s been one of the busiest fortnights of Mohammed Azharuddin’s life. The India-West Indies T20 series opener tonight, will be the first international match under his watch as president of the Hyderabad cricket association (HCA). The former captain is pulling 12-hour work days. It’s not just the match; it’s also his son’s Asaduddin’s wedding on December 12. Some luck has already come his way—Hyderabad was originally slated to host the third T20 in the series on December 11, just a day before Azhar’s son’s wedding, before the Mumbai Cricket Association made a request for match swap. Azharuddin gladly accepted.

Mumbai: Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) chief Mohammed Azharuddin arrives at BCCI office. (PTI)

“I have been busy. Very, very busy,” he says,“We were preparing for Dec 11 and then Mumbai’s request came in.” His phone rings constantly; a lot of the calls are for complimentary match passes. “People think, now that he is the president, he owns the stadium. It’s not like that, the president has a certain quota,” one of his aide’s says.

Ask Azhar, and he replies with the usual shrug of shoulders, “When I was playing, that time too there were calls. Even now, so nothing new.” Azhar’s identity is far from being just a former cricketer. He is a cricketing legend, a charismatic captain, a disgraced player charged with match-fixing and banned from the game, a politician and a member of parliament, and now back in the game as an administrator.

His playing days were simpler than what he does now, he says. “It’s quite hectic. Grounds, boxes, passes; all these things have to be taken care of. It’s not an easy job. It’s not like going out and batting straightaway,” Azhar says, with his collar-up swagger intact.

But Azhar wanted to win the HCA elections badly. After the humiliation of having his candidacy cancelled by the returning officer in 2017, he wanted to prove a point. He had been deemed ineligible as the BCCI has not lifted the life-ban for his alleged involvement in match-fixing. Despite the Andhra Pradesh High Court declaring the ban illegal after a case that lasted 11 years, the BCCI has never officially lifted the ban.

But that’s in the past. Under the new BCCI administration, Azhar is well and truly back on the cricket circuit. He was a chief guest at BCCI President Sourav Ganguly’s felicitation by Cricket association of Bengal at Kolkata. He attended the BCCI AGM last Sunday as the HCA representative. The AGM cleared his pending benevolent fund and other dues, amounting to Rs 1.5 crores, which were overlooked by previous regimes. Ahead today’s match, the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium sports a stand named after him.

“I was very happy that I was part of the BCCI AGM. I never thought I would get to sit in one,” he says.

Azhar has had a see-saw ride with the game. In the eighties, he was the lanky young wristy artisan who made cricket viewing a sheer delight. In the early nineties, he was the architect of India establishing themselves as a home power, maximising the spin advantage. Then the match fixing scandal erupted.

Does he get the feeling that the respect he once commanded in the cricketing world is returning?

“It’s not that I have not been respected. I have always commanded respect. If you are nice to people and respect others, people respect you back. I have always held this policy,” he says. “(But) in every walk of life, you need a position to work. If you don’t have a position, you can’t work. You can’t put things in perspective. When you are at the helm of affairs, you can try to do something different.”

What are his priorities then, now that he is at the helm? “I will try to do things to the best of my ability and my main aim is to promote the game of cricket in Hyderabad. International matches will come and go. But I want Hyderabad cricket to progress,” Azhar says.

With charges of selection malpractice against his colleagues, he will have his hands full in the new role. But he hopes to work in tandem with Ganguly to make a difference. “Dada is very dynamic. After the turmoil of last three or four years, things are now looking up for BCCI. He is a genuine person and will work for the best interest of the game,” Azhar says. Azhar has his fingers crossed that the T20I passes off without a blemish. He then has the grand wedding to look after.