PUNE: Vikas Kakatkar was elected unopposed as
Maharashtra Cricket Association
president in an election which saw confusion reign and new members - former international cricketers from the state - being left high and dry. This was the first election of the MCA after the Justice Lodha report to the Supreme Court that urged reforms in cricket governance.
Besides the president, the other four office-bearers were also elected unopposed. Riyaz Bagwan retained his post of secretary and is joined by his close aide Shubhendra Bhadarkar as treasurer. Rahul Dhole-Patil of Poona Club became the joint secretary and Ajay Gupte is vice-president. The AGM also nominated Bagwan as their representative in the BCCI who is going to polls on October 23.
Besides the members from district associations, 16 international cricketers (six male and 10 female) went home empty-handed. JS Saharia, the former election commissioner of Maharashtra, first postponed the election of two posts (one male, one female) for international cricketers. But then, he had a change of heart - labelled as typographical error in his official correspondence with CoA - and decided to go ahead with the election for those two posts on the morning of the election day.
Saharia said he got a clear written communication from the CoA not to hold elections for these posts only at 10.10am on Wednesday. "Since the elections were already under way, I decided to complete the process," he said. "However, I'm not announcing the result of those two posts and those ballot papers are sealed."
It meant 14 of the 18 international cricketers who became automatic members due to Lodha reforms - including candidates
Yajurvindra Singh
,
Abhijit Kale, Shubhangi Kulkarni and
Amrita Shinde
- who were present on Wednesday, could not vote in other category outside that of cricketers (one person, one vote) for the election of apex council.
Yajurvindra and Kulkarni were livid with the highly questionable process followed by Saharia. They were quite vocal about the unfairness of it after the 16 winners of the apex council were announced by the EO. However, Saharia didn't pay heed.
The CoA wasn't happy at all with the way Saharia conducted the elections. They wanted the EO to "hold elections strictly in accordance with the approved constitution." Their email came with a stern warning: "Failing to comply with the CoA approved constitution may lead to MCA elections not being recognised for the purpose of BCCI elections."
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