Vilasrao Deshmukh becomes the new MCA boss, defeats Vengsarkar

Vilasrao beats Vengsarkar in the MCA polls

Politicians are here to stay in India’s cricket administration. The union minister for Science, Technology & Earth Sciences Vilasrao Deshmukh was elected as the new Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) president after defeating former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar in a keenly watched contest. Vilasrao, also former chief minister of Maharashtra, managed to register a victory with Sharad Pawar’s blessings. This victory means the end of hopes of a cricketer leading the most powerful cricket association of India.

The contest wasn’t even close. While Deshmukh got 182 votes in his favor, Vengsarkar could manage to muster 135 votes. Since 1992, the association has been under politicians’ grip. Deshmukh’s victory extends the trend for another two years.

In other results, Ratnakar Shetty and Vijay Patil won the elections for the post of vice presidents of MCA. Ratnakar Shetty who is currently BCCI’s chief administrative officer registered an easy win with 206 votes. Vijay Patil, the other Vice President, defeated BJP leader Ashish Shelar. Vijay patil is the son of Dr DY Patil and also the owner of the DY Patil stadium.

PV Shetty and Nitin Dalal were elected as the new Joint Secretaries of the MCA.

After the victory, Deshmukh thanked all his supporters and expressed his willingness to take Mumbai cricket forward.

We will work together in the coming years, and a lot of work is to be done for betterment of Mumbai cricket. I will need your support. I thank you all for electing me, and I also thank Pawar-Mahadalkar for nominating me. I assure you that I shall keep up the good work done by Pawar

But former cricketers are red over the defeat of Dilip Vengsarkar. Bishan Singh Bedi described the outcome as a great tragedy for Mumbai cricket. Bedi said,

To me, there is no winner, only one loser, Mumbai cricket. Somehow politicians come together while cricketers fall apart.

What do you feel? Is it a tragedy that cricketers don’t get the chance to be involved in cricket administration? Is it wrong to have politicians as cricket board bosses? Share your views in the comments section.