MUMBAI: Former India cricketers will continue to enjoy voting rights in the Mumbai Cricket Association, thanks largely to an emotional plea in this regard by MCA president Vijay Patil, who chaired a Special General Meeting called by a few members of the association on Friday morning to discuss major proposed amendments to its constitution.
Mumbai boasts of 71 former ex-International players-the maximum from any city, or even state in India- with greats like Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and Dilip Vengsarkar being amongst them.
“As the Chairman of the SGM and the MCA president, I made an appeal to all the members present to strongly support the rights of (former) international cricketers as voting members as their contribution to world cricket has been enormous and they are the pride of our association. A majority of the members were supportive of my emotional plea and the resolution was deferred to be discussed at a later stage. I also made a personal plea to the concerned members who sought the controversial resolution to withdraw the same in the interest of cricket,” Patil told TOI.
“The SGM on proposed constitutional amendments in MCA has thus been deferred indefinitely. No amendments were discussed in the meeting,” said a source.
“All constitutional changes have now been referred to the constitution committee of the MCA for further deliberations and recommended changes. As the Chairman, I was authorized by the ‘house’ to name a fresh five-man committee to discuss these proposed changes in the MCA constitution to the General Body,” Patil told this paper.
It’s learnt that 158 members attended the SGM. Apart from Patil, a few senior MCA functionaries of the past played a big role in deciding the course of the meeting and that the vote of ex-Test cricketers stays with them. “Patil gave a small speech about it, and Pravin Amre (ex-Test cricketer) thanked the house for the same. Senior administrators Prof Ratnakar Shetty, ex-MCA president Ravi Savant and Sripad Halbe played vital roles in the meeting,” said a source.
“I advised them that you better call off the meeting and go through the proposed amendments again. I told them that you are bringing some amendments before the house, which haven’t been properly thought of. You can’t file an application on these amendments in the Supreme Court and then discuss in the General Body. It doesn’t make any sense. These amendments should be discussed threadbare, and then whatever changes you want to make, you do that in your application before SC,” said Shetty.
“We’ve nothing against ex-cricketers. It’s just that they can’t be voting both at the Indian Cricketers’ Association and the state unit elections at the same time. They should be able to vote at one place,” said one of the members who was backing the move.
The resolution to bring about certain constitutional amendments was signed by 30 voting members of the MCA. Apart from abolishing voting rights of International cricketers of Mumbai, allowing individuals above 70 to hold posts, and making the Apex Council act through the secretary instead of the CEO were the other amendments proposed.
