Sharad Pawar defeats Shiv Sena-backed Vijay Patil to win seventh term as MCA president

Mumbai Cricket Association members voted against change as incumbent president Sharad Pawar beat back a spirited challenge from resurgent candidate Vijay Patil, who was heading the Cricket First Group, by 34 votes. Pawar, who had teamed up with the Bal Mahaddalkar group, won by 176 votes to 142. It was the first time Pawar has faced an election at the MCA since coming to power in 2001. Patil, who had been vice-president since 2011, was backed by the Shiv Sena while the BJP had thrown its weight behind Pawar’s already considerable influence. [caption id=“attachment_2300228” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  MCA president Sharad Pawar. PTI[/caption] Four other members of the Bal Mahadalkar group were elected as office bearers. Former India batsman Dilip Vengsarkar and BJP Mumbai president Ashish Shelar were elected the two vice-presidents. Nitin Dalal and Dr. PV Shetty were elected Treasurer and one of the two joint secretaries respectively. Dr. Unmesh Khanvilkar of Cricket First prevented the clean sweep by winning the race for the other joint secretary’s post. Pratap Sarnaik, the Shiv Sena MLA who ran for vice-president was defeated, as was former India fast bowler Abey Kuruvilla. The one shock defeat for the Mahadalkar group was Ravi Sawant, who had been vice-president for the previous two years and interim president after Deshmukh died in August 2012. This time around he ran for secretary and lost out to Khanvilkar. The Pawar-Mahadalkar group also stormed to victory in 10 of the 11 contests for the managing committee. Pravin Amre, the former India and Mumbai batsman, was the only member of Cricket First to prevail. The results were announced outside the BCCI’s headquarters at the Wankhede Stadium late on 17 June. Patil had campaigned aggressively on the need for change in the MCA but may have been undone by his refusal to state that he would not host matches at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, which he owns. Pawar had made a point of saying the Wankhede Stadium, which the MCA owns, must retain its primacy in Mumbai cricket and warned that if Patil was elected, that could change. Pawar left the Wankhede Stadium around 6 pm (just before voting closed) but returned once he knew he had won to announce the formal results. He was promptly surrounded by supporters and allies, some of whom took selfies with him. “We will work together with everyone for the good of Mumbai cricket,” Pawar said. Vengsarkar, who lost the 2011 election for president to the late Vilasrao Deshmukh, popped a bottle of champagne while outside the Vinoo Mankad gate, a small group of BJP supporters had gathered to celebrate Shelar’s win. The police prevented them from entering the stadium but that did not dampen their enthusiasm. They waved BJP flags, banged drums and shouted slogans. Pawar headed MCA for ten years, from 2001-2011, before handing over the reins to fellow-politician Vilasrao Deshmukh whose untimely death in August 2012 enabled Ravi Savant to become the interim president before Pawar was elected unopposed as president at the last elections. Refuting Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, Pawar told a media conference on Tuesday that he was not batting on zero but with an unbeaten multiple hundred. “In MCA’s administrative history, the performance of Sesharao Wankhede was very good as he was the first to develop this infrastructure. In the last few years the Cricket Centre which was built during my tenure is not only the headquarters of MCA but also of BCCI,” Pawar had said. “Secondly the indoor facilities at the BKC is the first such facility in India. We have built similar facilities in Kandivli too and have plans to extend them to Thane. I am not batting on one century but on multiple centuries” the NCP Chief added. He conceded that DY Patil Stadium was allotted an ODI in the past against Australia and the match got washed out. “That permission was taken from the International Cricket Council (ICC) when Wankhede underwent renovation. But one of the conditions ICC has put forth is that no sport other than cricket can be held in order for the venue to get ICC clearance to hold internationals. Now that stadium (D Y Patil) holds football matches (ISL) too,” he said. “His (Viay Patil) father is a good friend of mine but I am not taking the next generation seriously,” he added. Pawar made it clear that politics and party affiliations did not matter when it came to his connection with sports bodies. “I have headed Maharashtra Olympic Association, Maharashtra Wrestling body and the country’s Kho Kho and Kabaddi associations. I had never mixed politics and sports all these years and this man here (Shelar) is of the same dispensation,” said Pawar. “In cricket administration MCA, Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Delhi and now Maharashtra are considered to be among the best,” he said. While saying Mumbai teams have done well in various tournaments, the NCP chief said he was happy that cricket has spread to various parts of the country unlike in the past when it was confined to a few big centres like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru. *Editor’s note: The tally has been updated to reflect the final results announced by the MCA. Full list of MCA election winners President: Sharad Pawar Vice President: Dilip Vengsarkar and Ashish Shelar. Jt. Secretary: Dr. PV Shetty and Dr. Unmesh Khanvilkar Treasurer: Nitin Dalal Managing Committee members: Vinod Deshpande, Navin Shetty, Deepak Patil, Arvind Kadam, Ganesh Iyer, Shah Alam, Srikant Tigdi, Arman Mallick, Ramesh Vajge, Pankaj Thakur and Pravin Amre. With additional inputs from PTI