In a stunning development that has rocked Hyderabad’s cricketing fraternity, Jagan Mohan Rao, the President of the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA), has been arrested as part of a massive ticketing scam involving the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) season.
Rao was arrested on Wednesday by the Telangana Crime Investigation Department (CID) after a vigilance investigation revealed serious anomalies in the distribution of tickets for IPL games played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.
The CID claimed that HCA officials, headed by Rao, coerced IPL team Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) into distributing more free tickets, which were subsequently sold illegally in the black market. In one particularly shocking case, authorities allegedly sealed a corporate box at the stadium mere hours before a match, forcing SRH to surrender additional passes – a move that violated a tri-party agreement entered into by HCA, SRH, and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
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SRH Thought of Relocating Matches Outside Hyderabad
There had been simmering tensions between the franchise and HCA throughout the season. SRH charged Rao with “blackmail and intimidation” and officially lodged a complaint with both the BCCI and the IPL Governing Council. Fed up with continuous interference, SRH threatened to shift its home matches away from Hyderabad if things did not change.
At the instigation of increasing controversy, the Telangana government had initiated a vigilance inquiry that eventually resulted in an FIR against Rao and others.
Attempt at Reconciliation: Joint Resolution Reached
In an attempt to diffuse the crisis, HCA Secretary R. Devraj convened a high-level meeting with SRH officials at the stadium. Following a few rounds of uneasy dialogue and frank discussions with SRH CEO Mr. Shanmugam, both sides decided to follow the current practice of giving 3,900 free tickets per match.
A release issued following the meeting stated
“HCA and SRH are committed to ironing out differences amicably and to collectively enhancing the match-day experience for cricket followers at Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.”
Though the fire of the moment may have been extinguished, the scandal has brought to light serious fissures in Hyderabad cricket’s governance and raised questions regarding control within zonal associations.
