Jammu, May 23, 2025: In India, cricket is not just a sport, it is a way of life, a shared obsession that bridges age, language, and class.
But beneath the gloss of packed stadiums and high-stakes matches lies a more troubling reality, one where politics, ego, and personal gain often undermine the very spirit of the game.
Two recent stories from Hyderabad and Jammu & Kashmir show just how far the rot can go, or how, with courage, it can be confronted.
Mohammed Azharuddin, once Indian cricket’s golden boy, elegant, unflappable, iconic. But his tenure as president of the Hyderabad Cricket Association may have forever stained that legacy.
In 2019, while heading the HCA, Azharuddin oversaw the renaming of the North Pavilion at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium after himself replacing the existing “VVS Laxman Pavilion.” The move was quietly passed during his presidency, and it took years before it was formally challenged.
On April 19, 2025, HCA Ombudsman and Ethics Officer Justice V. Eswaraiah ruled the renaming a clear conflict of interest, violating Rule 38 of the HCA constitution. The pavilion will now have Azharuddin’s name removed.
“You cannot be the judge, jury, and beneficiary,” said one former cricketer familiar with the case. “This isn’t a personal fiefdom, it’s a public trust.”
The decision is more than symbolic for it is a rare act of holding the powerful accountable in Indian cricket administration.
If Hyderabad is trying to fix past mistakes, Jammu & Kashmir seems to be doubling down on them.
What should have been a simple coaches’ workshop in Srinagar last month turned into a display of favouritism and dysfunction. Instead of qualified coaches, insiders claim the event was packed with cronies, selectors and associates of the current administration who had not even passed mandatory exams.
Meanwhile, genuinely qualified, and experienced coaches were sidelined, some not even informed about the event.
At the centre of the storm are Mithun Manhas and Majid Dar, two figures shaping JKCA’s current trajectory.
Mithun Manhas, a former Delhi cricketer, faces serious allegations with claims of doling out contracts and posts to close associates.
Majid Dar, whose own playing career was tainted by allegations of age fraud and nepotism, still holds significant influence. If reports are to be believed, Majid Dar played for the U-16 JK team at the age of 25. While younger cricketers like Rasik Salam were banned for two years over minor documentation errors, Majid’s case remains untouched. The BCCI has set clear rules against age fraud, but in JKCA, those rules seem optional. The height of tragedy is such that JKCA which should have brought culprit to the justice has roped in lawyer and impugned stay on the FIR filed by enforcement agencies, how long will Majid evade arrest remains to be seen.
As the apex body has taken steps to address this issue, announcing a two-year ban for age cheats, time is ripe to make an example out of the players past their prime and set a deterrent, said a former player on the condition of anonymity.
The culture, present dispensation of JKCA presides over has turned JKCA into what some insiders describe as a “closed club,” where loyalty is rewarded and dissent is punished.
In a move that left many speechless last season, Ajay Sharma, a former cricketer banned for life for match-fixing was appointed as the senior coach of J&K’s Ranji Trophy team.
While the BCCI has taken a strong stance on corruption, even banning a T20 franchise owner of Mumbai for life recently, JKCA appears to be doing the opposite in rehabilitating those with tainted pasts.
The Ranji team, under Sharma’s leadership, lost a key knockout game by just one run, a heartbreaking reminder that even the smallest margins matter when leadership is compromised.
This is not just about a pavilion or a workshop. It is about what kind of cricketing culture we want to build.
In Hyderabad, accountability seems to be making a cautious comeback. In Jammu & Kashmir, the signs point the other way towards institutionalized favouritism, broken morale, and vanishing transparency.
The mockery does not stop here, Mithun Manhas who as per few reports had submitted his resignation from the subcommittee membership is reportedly campaigning for himself to ensure that he occupies the seat for few more years and in this pursuit, he is not leaving any stone unturned to present a rosy picture of JKCA.
So much is the desperation that after occupying the office for four years now, suddenly present dispensation of JKCA is conducting talent hunt programmes for various age groups as if all the talent was in hibernation mode for past all these years.
Cricket who had pinned high hopes on the present dispensation feel cheated today. Some cricket lovers even go on to say that the previous administration headed by a senior retired cop, though himself being a non-cricketer made a lot of sense to the cricket acumen of J&K.
While Irfan Pathan’s talent hunt initiative some six years ago unearthed promising youngsters like Umran Malik, Abdul Samad, and Rasik Salam, who have earned accolades across the cricket spectrum, and have garnered widespread recognition in the cricket world the present regime’s efforts seem hollow, with more emphasis on words than tangible results, lacking concrete achievements and relies heavily on empty rhetoric and unsubstantiated claims.
With rumours rife that the Supreme Court is likely to give its judgment for the conduct of JKCA elections during the next hearing, paving the way for a democratically elected body to govern cricket in Jammu and Kashmir after over seven years of administration by appointed officials, it has rekindled the hope that democratic setup will return and all wrongs will be set right, for Cricket belongs to the people, not to administrators seeking self-promotion or expired players looking for redemption.
