MUMBAI: Amol Kale, who was the vice-president in the last Apex Council, and is a childhood friend of Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, will take on India’s 1983 World Cup hero Sandeep Patil for the coveted president’s post in the elections of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) on October 20.
Kale’s candidature for the president’s post from the Sharad Pawar-Ashish Shelar Group was finalised on Friday-the last day of withdrawing nominations, after both Shelar, who is set to take up the treasurer’s post in the BCCI, and Sanjay Naik (was the secretary during the last term), withdrew their nominations on the day. Naik, in fact, withdrew his nomination from all the posts.
On Wednesday night, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Fadnavis, while giving this backing to the group, promised their complete support to the MCA during a meeting of the group with the voters (schools, colleges and office clubs) at the Garware Lounge in the Wankhede Stadium premises.
No candidate for V-P post
Interestingly, there’s intrigue over who will become the MCA vice-president now as both Kale and Navin Shetty withdrew their nominations for the post. The election for this post is likely to take place later now. Ajinkya Naik, Neil Savant and Mayank Khandwala will vie for the secretary’s post. Naik is a favourite to win this contest since both the Pawar-Shelar and Sandeep Patil’s Mumbai Cricket groups are backing him for this post. With all other candidates having withdrawn, Deepak Patil is now set to become the joint secretary of MCA. Jagdish Achrekar, Sanjeev Khanolkar and Arman Malik will vie for the treasurer’s post.
Meanwhile, former First-Class player Anand Yalvigi is set to be the male ICA representative in the MCA’s Apex Council after former seamer Balwinder Singh Sandhu withdrew his nomination from the ICA polls.
Vihang Sarnaik (was an Apex member in last term) of the Pawar-Shelar group is all set to become the chairman of the Mumbai T20 League Governing Council after his rival, Iqbal Shaikh of the Mumbai Cricket Group, withdrew his nomination.
‘It’s a non-political group’
Though the Pawar-Shelar group has heavy political backing, Kale claimed that it was “non-political” in nature. “I’m thankful to Pawar Saheb and Ashishji for giving me this opportunity. Everyone knows that ours is a non-political group under the leadership of Pawar saheb and Ashishji, and it has been blessed by the CM and deputy CM. It includes Ahwad sahib (NCP MLA Jitendra Ahwad) and Milind Narvekar (PA to former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray of Shiv Sena). All of us have forgotten our political differences for the development of Mumbai cricket,” Kale told TOI.
“It’s a young, vibrant team, all have achieved something or the other in their lives. So, that experience we will surely use to take MCA to a different level. We’ll use all our expertise to resolve all the issues of the MCA, which have been pending for the last so many years. At the same time, I’ll also focus on developing new cricketing activities for MCA, mainly for schools, colleges and maidan clubs, which are a little behind as of now. A lot can be done for them,” he added.
On talk that he’s close to the deputy CM, Kale said, “See, I’m close to everybody. I’m friends with so many people. Likewise, being from the same city (Nagpur), of course I have known him very well for the last so many years. But, at the same time, I have known many people for many years.”
Talking about the CM and deputy CM’s presence in one of the recent meetings of his group to canvas for votes, Kale said: “They have appreciated the fact that Pawar and Shelar have formed a group. They said that since this is an ‘apolitical group,’ and it involves experienced people, we will stand strongly with this group and the MCA. They said that whatever issues are there (regarding MCA), will be actively resolved by the state government.”
