The hype in the media and the cricketing circles of Mumbai finally
came to an end at midnight on Friday as NCP leader Sharad Pawar was
elected as the President of the Mumbai Cricket Association.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Pawar won by a margin of 60 votes.
Pawar had 185 votes whereas his rival Ajit Wadekar had 125. The
ballots were sealed and sent for counting at 6:15 PM, the results were
not announced until midnight. The celebrations began late in the night
as Pawar's victory was celebrated with fire crackers and a musical
band.
Ajit Wadekar told CricInfo," It was just like a Test match, I am not
at all worried." Wadekar had the support of both the Manohar Joshi and
Bal Mahaddalkar panels. Wadekar was the Vice-President of the outgoing
Managing Committee headed by former Maharashtra Chief Minister and
Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi.
A majority of the contesting candidates in this election were players
but it was surprising that only two of the seven Test cricketers were
elected. Ajit Wadekar, Raju Kulkarni, Karsan Ghavri, Lalchand Rajput,
Kenia Jayantilal, Chandrakant Pandit and Sudhir Naik all contested the
elections, but only Rajput and Pandit were elected to the Managing
Committee.
What was being built up as a war between cricketers and administrators
turned out to be a damp squid as the administrators made a clean sweep
of the elections. Milind Rege and Deepak Jadhav both first class
cricketers also lost in the elections.
In fact, Chandrakant Pandit, Karsan Ghavri and Dr Arun Shamsi were not
even present at the elections and none of them voted. Indeed, Pandit is playing in a Ranji Trophy match for Madhya Pradesh against Uttar Pradesh at Kanpur. Shamsi arrived at the Wankhede only after the ballot boxes had been sealed. Of the 323 eligible voters, 311 cast their votes on Friday.
With all the hype surrounding the Presidential candidates, the
positions of the two Vice Presidents were won by Pravin Barve (MIG)
and Ravi Savant (Aarey CC). Barve was supported by the Manohar Joshi
group and Savant was backed by the Bal Mahaddalkar panel. Barve was
the Jt Hon Secretary in the last term.
Prof Ratnakar Shetty (Wilson College) was relected to the position of
Jt Hon Secretary, the second Jt Hon Secretary is Mayank Khandwalla
(Shree Lad).The ever reliable Ramesh Kosambia was elected as the
Treasurer.
The eleven elected members on The Management committee are Shripad
Halbe (Oriental CC), Nitin Dalal (Star CC), Lalchand Rajput (Forbes
Group SC), Dr PV Shetty (New Amrut CC), Dr Arun Shamsi (Old Podarites
CC), Nadeem Memon (Anjuman Islam), Hemant Waigankar (Sungrace Mafatlal
SC), Pravin Gogri (Dahisar SC), Jayant Jhaveri (Fort Vijay), Madhoo
Patwardhan (Bhavishya Nidhi Staff CC) and Chandrakant Pandit.
Pravin Gogri was elected for the fourth consecutive term which also
happens to be his last term in the Managing Committee.
Polly Umrigar was pleased at the results of the elections. He told
CricInfo, " I am happy with the current crowd, it is a good mixture of
talented people." Umrigar was present at the Wankhede stadium well
into the night as he awaited the results of the elections with other
members.
All through the afternoon the Wankhede stadium was flocked by the NCP
supporters and the stadium seemed like a political gathering. The
Pawar panel was present in full support of their leader. Well over a
thousand supporters were seen in and around the Wankhede stadium. They
looked confident of their leader's victory as they came well prepared
with sweets, fire crackers and a musical band for the celebrations.
Eight candidates from the Bal Mahaddalkar group, six from the Manohar
Joshi group and two from the Pawar panel were elected to the seventeen
positions in the MCA office.
The Manohar Joshi group has one elected Vice-President candidate, one
Jt Hon Secretary and four members in the Managing Committee. The
Sharad Pawar panel won the President's post and one seat in the
Managing Commitee. The Bal Mahaddalkar group has one elected Vice-
President candidate, one Jt Hon Secretary and six seats in the
Managing Committee.