Backed by Sharad Pawar, Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh pipped former India skipper Dilip Vengsarkar in a fiercely fought contest to become the new president of the Mumbai Cricket Association.
Published: Jul 16, 2011, 12:26 AM (IST)
Edited: Jul 16, 2011, 12:26 AM (IST)
Deshmukh defeated Vengsarkar by 181 votes to 136 to emerge triumphant in the biennial elections © Getty Images
Mumbai: Jul 15, 2011
Backed by Sharad Pawar, Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh pipped former India skipper Dilip Vengsarkar in a fiercely fought contest to become the new president of the Mumbai Cricket Association.
Deshmukh defeated Vengsarkar by 181 votes to 136 to emerge triumphant in the biennial elections. Both Desmukh and Vengsarkar were vice-presidents in the outgoing committee which was headed by Pawar.
Pawar had become ineligible to contest the polls as per a clause in the MCA’s constitution following a change of his permanent residence status from Mumbai to Baramati.
Pawar’s panel members — Prof Ratnakar Shetty and Ravi Savant — were elected as vice-president and treasurer respectively while D Y Patil Sports Academy’s chairman Vijay Patil, who contested as an independent, became the other vice-president.
Two other members of the Pawar panel — Dr P V Shetty and Nitin Dalal — also emerged victorious to become the two new joint secretaries.
Deshmukh, a former state Chief Minister, followed the footsteps of Manohar Joshi (1992-2001) and Pawar (2001-2011) to become the 13th MCA president since it was founded in 1930-31.
Like another former India captain before him, Ajit Wadekar, who lost to Pawar, ex-chief selector Vengsarkar was unable to snap the stranglehold of politicians in the MCA.
Despite some hectic lobbying over the last few days and the support extended by another former India skipper Kapil Dev in the run-up to the elections, Vengsarkar failed to buck the near-two-decade-long trend.
Vengsarkar had formed a panel with some of his erstwhile India and Mumbai teammates Karsan Ghavri, Balwinder Sandhu and Chandrakant Pandit who also contested the polls for 11 managing committee posts.
© PTI
