Vice-president Vijay Patil walks out of MCA meeting

Mumbai: The divisions within the Mumbai Cricket Association, gearing itself up to felicitate retiring senior batsman Sachin Tendulkar, came to the fore on Sunday when newly elected vice-president Vijay Patil walked out of its managing committee meeting here. “Vijay Patil walked out of the meeting as he wanted to chair it in the absence of Sharad Pawar (president) who is abroad. Ravi Savant, being the senior vice-president and a committee member for 20 years, chaired the meeting,” said Dr PV Shetty, the joint secretary of the association. [caption id=“attachment_1198555” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational Image. Getty[/caption] However, a managing committee member from the Patil group told Firstpost that it was Patil’s right to chair the meeting under MCA by-laws and that the Savant-group was using their majority to get things done their way. Shetty said the meeting could not be put off as many important issues like felicitation of Tendulkar at the Kandivli complex of MCA on November 11 and the naming of the press box in the Wankhede Stadium after the late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, had to be finalised. “We have very little time and had to finalise these things,” Shetty said. Savant and Patil headed rival groups in the recent elections to the MCA’s managing committee and were both elected as vice presidents. Meanwhile, there is a huge demand for tickets for Tendulkar’s farewell Test at the Wankhede Stadium against the West Indies from November 14-18. “We are meeting again on Tuesday to decide about the tickets. There is a huge demand for tickets,” Shetty said while confirming that the upper tier of the North Stand, named after the retiring great, will accommodate 2000 spectators and the ticket rates is Rs 10,000 for each seat at this stand. PTI