Vengsarkar, Rajput win MCA election

Former Mumbai and India captain Dilip Vengsarkar was elected vice-president of the Mumbai Cricket Association on Wednesday, as the panel belonging to the late Bal Mahaddalkar's group swept the MCA's biennial election.

Vengsarkar, who polled 245 votes, was elected to one of two vice-president's posts along with Ravindra Sawant, also of the Mahaddalkar group, who polled 197 votes.

Ramesh Kosambia (204 votes, Mahaddalkar) was elected treasurer.

Former Maharashtra chief minister and Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar was re-elected unopposed as president last week.

Professor Ratnakar Shetty and former India Test opener Lalchand Rajput, who polled 230 and 174 votes, respectively, were elected secretaries.

Speaking to rediff.com after the election results were announced amidst loud cheers, Vengsarkar said, "Our [Mahaddalkar panel's] victory will help Mumbai cricket go up. I am very happy. We have to work very hard. We will see to it that the entire panel will work together and do a fantastic job for the next two years.

"We want more cricketers to come and work in the administration as well."

An elated Milind Rege, from the same group, who was elected to the managing committee, felt good administration will hold the key to the MCA's success.

"It's a very tough job," Rege, a former Mumbai Ranji player, said. "We can enjoy the congratulations now, but from tomorrow we have to start working."

He said his group "has a system in place and will look forward to implementing it to help Mumbai cricket rise to the top again".

"It's a victory for cricket," he declared.

Following are the 11 committee members, with the number of votes polled in parentheses:

Sameer Bandekar (175)
Laxman Chauhan (203)
Nitin Dalal (203)
Arvind Kadam (154)
Milind Rege (229)
P V Shetty (239)
Avi Sule (185)
Ramesh Vajge (145)
Hemant Vaingankar (230)
Sanjay Patel (165)
Madhu Patwardhan (165)

Only Sanjay Patel belongs to the rival Halbe-Barve group. In fact, the Halbe-Barve group, which had merged just a few days before the election, was routed so thoroughly that even Praveen Barve, outgoing vice-president, was defeated. He managed to secure only 99 votes.