Ajinkya Naik to be elected unopposed as MCA president

: Ajinkya Naik can be elected unopposed because the president of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) on the election, to be held on Tuesday. The 38-year-old who turned the youngest MCA president emerged as the appropriate determine to numerous factions after a dramatic flip of occasions over the past couple of days.

At the top of the prolonged window of withdrawals concluded on Monday night, election officer J. S. Saharia introduced the ultimate checklist of legitimate contesting candidates. Besides the publish of the president, there can be a straight election for every of the opposite 4 office-bearers’ posts, whereas 20 candidates can be in fray for the 11 posts of concilors.

“My coronary heart lies in maidan cricket — I’ll work for each participant, each membership, and for the brilliant way forward for Mumbai cricket,” Naik stated after being elected unopposed.

Naik’s candidacy in itself was objected to by Shahalam Shaikh – who’s a contestant for the secretary’s publish. The objection was about Naik being subjected to a compulsory cooling-off interval after serving within the apex council for six years in succession. Naik was a councillor for 3 years from 2019, earlier than being elected because the secretary in 2022 after which taking up because the president final yr after the demise of then president Amol Kale.

There have been seven different candidates in fray apart from Naik. But The Hindu understands that following a number of rounds of debate amongst MCA biggies together with influential politicians together with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Sharad Pawar, Naik emerged as a consensus candidate.

It can be fascinating to see if the MCA voters go for political figures – with MLA Jitendra Awhad (secretary) and Milind Narvekar (councilor) in fray – or desire to aspect with maidan personnel who’ve been actively concerned in native cricket.

Meanwhile, Rajdip Gupta can be elected unopposed because the T20 League Governing Council chairman.

The checklist of contestants: President: Ajinkya Naik; Vice-president: Jitendra Awhad, Navin Shetty; Secretary: Unmesh Khanvilkar, Shahalam Shaikh; Joint secretary: Nilesh Bhosle, Gaurav Payyade; Treasurer: Arman Mallick, Surendra Shewale.

Councillor (11 posts): Jitendra Gohil, Vighnesh Kadam, Chandrashekhar Kamble, Shrikant Kamtekar, Nadim Memon, Maulik Merchant, Milind Narvekar, Shafique Patel, Bhushan Patil, Sameer Pethe, Sunil Ramchandran, Vikas Repale, Surat Samat, Mangesh Satam, Neil Savant, Ashish Sawant, Arun Tawade, Sagar Tigdi, Sandeep Vichare, Pramod Yadav.

T20 Governing Council Chairman: Rajdip Gupta

T20 Governing Council Member: Kishor Jain, Bharat Kini.