A cricket league with four names and zero BCCI approval. The Telangana Cricket Association has had enough and gone legal.
Vijay Deverakonda and Venkatesh Daggubati are the first to get the notice.
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The Telangana Cricket Association (TCA) has sent legal notices to actor Vijay Deverakonda, actor Venkatesh Daggubati, international cricketer Mohammed Siraj, former cricketer Ambati Rayudu and cricketer Tilak Varma. The notices relate to their reported support for the proposed TG20 League. The TCA says the tournament lacks mandatory approval from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). All five had been reportedly linked to the league in some promotional capacity.
TCA General Secretary Gurava Reddy confirmed the move while speaking to ANI. He said the notices were sent out on the same day as his remarks. Also, he said the league is being organised by the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) without proper clearance. He called the tournament illegal and unapproved. He said the TCA objects to celebrities lending their names to it.
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Reddy alleged that the HCA is dealing with corporate entities without authorisation from the BCCI. He said promoting the league without approval amounts to an offence under BCCI norms. And, he raised concerns over the unclear regulatory status of the tournament and the effect of celebrity endorsements on public perception.
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He said the league has changed its name several times in recent years. It was first called the Telangana Premier League. It was then renamed TTL. Later it became the TG20 Premier League. It now goes by TG20. Reddy said new sponsor names and prefixes get added each time, but the core issues remain unresolved. He said the repeated rebranding has not addressed the underlying compliance problems.
Reddy cited BCCI Rule 28. The rule requires that a governing council running such a league be elected at the association’s annual general body meeting. It also requires the league chairman to be chosen by the general body. Reddy said neither requirement was met in this case. He described this as a mandatory rule for every BCCI member association, not an optional guideline.
Reddy linked the dispute to wider trouble inside the Hyderabad Cricket Association. He said the past one and a half to two years have brought complaints of criminal misappropriation and financial misappropriation.
Then he pointed to maladministration complaints as well. He said HCA members have filed multiple cases against each other during this period. He said this internal conflict has continued alongside the TCA’s separate fight for recognition.
Reddy said the TCA is fighting separately for its own rights, which he described as fundamental rights under the constitution. He said Telangana, as a newly formed state, has a constitutional claim to its own cricket body. He alleged the HCA blocks this in practice.
Reddy said the HCA’s structure and activities remain confined to Hyderabad city by design. He claimed Telangana players are not allowed to register for BCCI tournaments through the HCA. He said this pushed the TCA to build its own platform and approach the BCCI directly.
Reddy warned that the TCA will move court if the named celebrities continue their association with the league. He said the HCA is using celebrity backing to mask its lack of legal compliance. He confirmed that legal suits will follow the notices if the celebrities stay involved.
Reddy referred to a BCCI directive issued in 2021. The directive asked the HCA to collaborate with the TCA on cricket development outside Hyderabad city. Reddy alleged the HCA never carried out this order. He said the directive was meant to address the gap in opportunities for players outside the city.
Reddy said the TCA already holds BCCI recognition for cricket development across most of the state. He said this covers close to 85 percent of the geographical and population area outside Hyderabad city. He said the TCA has not yet been granted separate membership status by the BCCI, despite this recognition. Reddy added this gap in status is at the centre of the wider dispute with the HCA.
In addition, he said the BCCI wanted the two associations to work together so that practical methods and rules set by the board could be followed jointly. He said the HCA failed to follow the collaboration terms set out by the BCCI. This failure led the TCA to approach the Bombay High Court, he said.
The matter is currently pending before the Bombay High Court. Reddy said a final hearing is expected in the first week of July. He said the TCA expects the court’s decision to settle the larger question of recognition and collaboration between the two associations.
He said the HCA had told the Bombay High Court it would comply with the BCCI’s collaboration order. Two joint meetings followed between the two associations. One meeting took place under the supervision of a retired judge. Reddy said neither meeting produced meaningful progress. He said the lack of outcome from these meetings is part of why the dispute remains unresolved.
Reddy alleged that the HCA is now trying to lock in commercial rights through the TG20 League while the court case remains open. He said the league is selling franchises named after Telangana districts.
Also, he said this move could complicate the pending case before the court reaches its final decision. He said the timing of the franchise sales raised concerns for the TCA.
Reddy alleged that the HCA wants to create a conflict ahead of the July hearing. He said the league is capturing district names through what he called illegal means. Also, he claimed some franchise buyers are construction firms that mainly belong to ministers and MLAs. He further alleged that partners within these firms act as indirect fronts, or benamis, for other ministers and MLAs in Telangana. He said the TCA opposes these moves and views them as an attempt to gain ground before the court rules.
Reddy repeated the TCA’s central demand for separate BCCI recognition. He said more than 20,000 cricketers have links with the TCA outside Hyderabad city. Also, he said these players have waited for recognition since Telangana became a separate state in 2014. He said the wait has stretched across more than a decade of organised cricket activity in the state.
He said the BCCI constitution requires a newly formed state to receive its own cricket body within three months of formation. Then he said Telangana has waited 12 years without this recognition. He said this delay runs against the constitutional provision he cited.
Reddy said no cricketer from Telangana, outside Hyderabad, has represented India in the last 20 years. He said this reflects the lack of opportunity created by the current arrangement. He said the TCA is still waiting for what he called justice on this front.
(With inputs from ANI.)
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