Former India cricketer Sandeep Patil given green light to contest MCA election

India's 1983 World Cup-winning team member and former coach Sandeep Patil has been given a green light to contest the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) election set to be held on October 14.

Patil is one among the four eligible candidates who will contest for the post of the president. The others in the fray are Ashish Shelar, Amol Kale, and incumbent secretary Sanjay Naik. Among the names contesting, political heavyweight Ashish Shelar has thrown his hat into the ring to return as the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) president. He was known to take up the President’s role in the MCA for two years from 2016.

Sandeep Patil to contest MCA election

Citing conflict-of-interest, incumbent secretary Sanjay Naik objected to Patil’s candidature to contest the elections. Naik mentioned Patil’s close relation with Salil Ankola - Patil’s son Chirag has married Ankola’s daughter Sana, who is the chairman of Mumbai’s senior men’s selection committee.

However, J.S. Saharia, the electoral officer cleared the former India cricketer’s candidature handing him the green light to contest in the MCA elections after scrutinizing the documents. Patil, being the leader of the challenger Mumbai Cricket Group, is likely to be involved in a one-on-one contest against Kale, a close aide of deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. This comes after Shelar was confirmed as the treasurer-in-waiting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

If Patil emerges victorious, he will become the first Test cricketer to be president of the MCA since Madhav Mantri in the 1980s. Former captains Ajit Wadekar and Dilip Vengsarkar had attempted to contest for the elections only to lose out to Sharad Pawar and Vilasrao Deshmukh in 2000 and 2011 respectively.

As many as 34 candidates have submitted nomination forms for the nine apex council member posts. The joint secretary’s post has six valid candidates, while the treasurer’s post has 10 valid nominations, including that of incumbent Jagdish Achrekar. Any withdrawal by a candidate will be made available till Friday, 14 October.