Commentators' box to be named after late Bal Thackeray at Wankhede?

The Mumbai Cricket Association is likely to deliberate on the proposal received from a couple of its affiliated units to name the commentators' box at the Wankhede stadium after late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray.

"We have received a letter from one of our affiliated clubs asking us what had happened to the earlier proposal to name the commentators' box after Mr Bal Thackeray. It's not on the agenda of tomorrow's meeting but is likely to come up for discussion," a top MCA source said.

The earlier proposal had been sent by two other affiliated clubs of the MCA.

Wankhede has a number of stands named after former cricketers -- Vijay Merchant, Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar.

It has also the two main gates named after two former Test cricketers, Vinoo Mankad and Polly Umrigar.

An important item listed on the agenda is the reply sent by former MCA vice president Prof Ratnakar Shetty following a show cause notice sent to him by the committee after he had stated at the last AGM that tickets requested by MCA to its Gujarat counterpart for the T20 game between India and Pakistan held at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad in December 2012 could have been sold on the black market.

"The matter of his reply to the show cause he was sent earlier is listed as one of the items on the agenda of the meeting," the top MCA source informed.

The matter regarding the tickets for the T20 game was raised by Shetty, who is holding the post of General Manager (Game development) at the Cricket Board (BCCI), at the AGM of the MCA held last month.

In his reply to the show cause, Shetty had clarified that he did not allege but only raised the possibility that the tickets could have been sold on the black market as those tickets were issued to someone else and not to the MCA, which had asked for the tickets.

"I wish to clarify that I have not made any allegations of black marketing against any office bearers, or members of the Managing Committee for that matter. Hence, there is no question of providing evidence for what I did not allege," Shetty has said in his reply.

"I did make the statement that it is quite likely that an individual who was not a MCA member and got 150 tickets could have indulged in black marketing. The secretaries wrote to Saurashtra Cricket Association on 28th March after I raised the issue in the AGM and got a reply from them. Does this mail from SCA prove that the tickets were not resold?" Shetty further stated.

In his reply, Shetty also stated that he was compelled to raise the issue (at the AGM) after repeated reminders to the MCA joint secretaries regarding information on tickets of the T20 match did not evoke any response.

Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters