High drama in HCA, again

And fresh developments on Sunday, when three HCA Executive Committee members were suspended without notice, ensured the year will end with a zinger for the troubled cricket body.

Three EC members central to the drama that played out earlier this year — wherein 11 of the 18 officials present at an acrimonious Executive Committee meeting had walked out — were locked out of an EC meeting held at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium here on Sunday.

Babu Rao Sagar, Chitti Sridhar and R.M. Bhaskar, longtime vocal critics of Arshad, were barred from entering the stadium premises in Uppal. As it turned out, they were suspended five months ago but only came to know about it when the HCA posted a notice on Sunday, addressed to the stadium’s chief security officer, barring them from the stadium.

After the meeting, Babu Rao and Sridhar blocked President Arshad’s car from leaving the stadium. In scenes that wouldn’t be out of place in a Bollywood B-film, Arshad waited until a decoy car was made available and rather nimbly made his escape — from his car into the decoy, which then took off.

The trio claim they are victims of a vendetta because they had — in the press as well as with the BCCI — questioned certain dubious financial transactions undertaken by the HCA.

And this move to suspend them, they claim, was done completely circumventing procedure. Their best recourse now, they say, is to take their case to the BCCI directly.