HDCA secretary sacked

Published December 25, 2001

HYDERABAD, Dec 24: President Hyderabad District Cricket Association (HDCA), Mir Rafiq Ahmed Khan Talpur, Monday dissolved the existing body while levelling serious allegations against his secretary Mehboob Alam.

In a statement, the Talpur described the four years performance of Mehboob, the successor of Amin Rajput, as “dismal”.

He claimed that the secretary failed to fulfil his responsibilities in the best interest of cricket in the district during U-19 and Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Grade-II competition, adding that he had also failed to comply with the directives of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

The president said that the actions taken by the secretary had become talk of the town and it was an irony that Hyderabad was defeated by Badin in U-19 event of PCB due to poor selection and favouritism.

He charged that similar measures were adopted on Nov 30 during selection of Hyderabad team, comprising 20 players for Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Grade-I, scheduled to commence from Jan 2.

Talpur maintained that the outgoing body had overlooked genuine and deserving players, who deserve credit for ensuring Grade-I status for Hyderabad.

The President also expressed his dismay over the below par performance of the secretary which also led to the shifting of Sindh-XI camp from Hyderabad to Karachi as the Niaz Stadium was not upto the mark for the trials.

The President said that he has appointed an adhoc body, comprising six members to run the affairs till the elections, scheduled for February 2002.

The committee members including Mir Rafiq Ahmed Khan Talpur (chairman) and Mir Haider Ali Talpur, Mubarak Ali, Javed Channa, Syed Rahat Ali Shah and Muhammad Haroon Arain as members.

Interestingly, when Mir Rafiq Talpur was contacted over phone to confirm the veracity of the statement, Mehboob Alam was also found to be present there. Talpur was unable to reply to certain queries in clear terms as what prompted him to dissolve the body as he simply referred to Hafeez-ur-Rehman, Sports Officer of Taluka Council Hyderabad and Shakeel Qureshi, a representative of Pakistan Sports Welfare Association, Yar Muhammad Solangi and Majeed Khan of now defunct HDCA.

He claimed that all these individuals had some dispute among themselves, concerning cricket and added that he had asked them to come to him and sort out the issue.

He told Dawn that this statement, dissolving DCA, was issued by PCB. He informed that Brig (retd) Salahuddin also had some grievances about the Niaz Stadium which was not prepared for the trials.

The outgoing secretary said that he would be contesting elections in the coming year.

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