After not being allowed to take part in the post of President of the Hyderabad Cricket Association in 2017 when the nomination papers were not accepted by the committee, Mohammad Azharuddin has become the president with a landslide victory in the recent times. He shared his plans to revamp the structure of Hyderabad cricket.

“There are only three things on my mind right now – cricket, cricket, cricket,” he said after becoming the president.  “We will have to restructure everything and turn things around,” Mohammad Azharuddin told the Deccan Chronicle. “Look at the state of Gymkhana ground, it’s left for the cows to graze. We need to get to the grassroots and unearth talent now.”

“The members have done their job, mine starts now. I know it won’t be easy but I will give my best to revive the game which has suffered a lot in the last three years. We will seek support from all the club secretaries and take the game forward. Their suggestions as well as those of cricket enthusiasts will be more than welcome,” he shared.

After a life-ban was imposed on him for match-fixing, he stayed away from cricket for a couple of years, before he became a politician in 2009. At last, in 2012, a division bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court took off the ban.

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“I had worked very hard for close to 15 years to get into the Indian team and was very nervous when I played my first Test. Here, we worked as a team and campaigned hard and knew the result straightaway,” he added. “There are tense moments in any election, as I know anything can happen – having contested two general elections – but I was confident I would win this one. It’s a big victory though.”

“I am really looking forward to BCCI meetings because I have so much to offer, having played the game for quite a while. I have represented the BCCI on teams but now to deal with the board as an administrator will be different – this should be much easier than playing,” he concluded.​