By Admin 
: Ajinkya Naik will be elected unopposed as the president of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) at the election, to be held on Tuesday. The 38-year-old who became the youngest MCA president emerged as the acceptable figure to various factions after a dramatic turn of events over the last couple of days.
At the end of the extended window of withdrawals concluded on Monday evening, election officer J. S. Saharia announced the final list of valid contesting candidates. Besides the post of the president, there will be a straight election for each of the other four office-bearers’ posts, while 20 candidates will be in fray for the 11 posts of concilors.
“My heart lies in maidan cricket — I will work for every player, every club, and for the bright future of Mumbai cricket,” Naik said after being elected unopposed.
Naik’s candidacy in itself was objected to by Shahalam Shaikh – who is a contestant for the secretary’s post. The objection was about Naik being subjected to a mandatory cooling-off period after serving in the apex council for six years in succession. Naik was a councillor for three years from 2019, before being elected as the secretary in 2022 and then taking over as the president last year after the demise of then president Amol Kale.
There were seven other candidates in fray besides Naik. But The Hindu understands that following multiple rounds of discussion among MCA biggies along with influential politicians including Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Sharad Pawar, Naik emerged as a consensus candidate.
It will be interesting to see if the MCA voters opt for political figures – with MLA Jitendra Awhad (secretary) and Milind Narvekar (councilor) in fray – or prefer to side with maidan personnel who have been actively involved in local cricket.
Meanwhile, Rajdip Gupta will be elected unopposed as the T20 League Governing Council chairman.
The list of contestants: President: Ajinkya Naik; Vice-president: Jitendra Awhad, Navin Shetty; Secretary: Unmesh Khanvilkar, Shahalam Shaikh; Joint secretary: Nilesh Bhosle, Gaurav Payyade; Treasurer: Arman Mallick, Surendra Shewale.
Councillor (11 posts): Jitendra Gohil, Vighnesh Kadam, Chandrashekhar Kamble, Shrikant Kamtekar, Nadim Memon, Maulik Merchant, Milind Narvekar, Shafique Patel, Bhushan Patil, Sameer Pethe, Sunil Ramchandran, Vikas Repale, Surat Samat, Mangesh Satam, Neil Savant, Ashish Sawant, Arun Tawade, Sagar Tigdi, Sandeep Vichare, Pramod Yadav.
T20 Governing Council Chairman: Rajdip Gupta
T20 Governing Council Member: Kishor Jain, Bharat Kini.