Vijay Patil forms panel to fight MCA elections

MUMBAI: Vijay Patil, chairman of the D Y Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai which has hosted IPL finals in the past, has formed a select panel called 'Cricket First' to fight the forthcoming biennial elections of the Mumbai Cricket Association on October 18.

Included in his panel are former Test cricketers Lalchand Rajput and Abey Kuruvilla and former Mumbai medium pacer Atul Ranade, who is considered to be a very close friend of senior India batsman Sachin Tendulkar.

Patil is one of the two incumbent vice-presidents of MCA who fought elections to the managing committee and won two years ago.

This time he's fighting on the plank of improving the cricket structure in Mumbai and its surrounding regions like Thane and Navi Mumbai.

He has also vowed to support Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar in the latter's quest to regain the reins of MCA after a few years.

"I had read in the newspapers and in Mr Pawar's twitter handle that he wants to contest for the post of president of MCA. Considering his stature and past contribution to cricket, we will support his candidature," said Patil last night at a gathering of prospective voters and panel members convened to unveil his panel.

Patil also said apart from the subsidies that the association gets regularly from BCCI, it should try and generate income on its own and one of the means to do so was to start a top class museum for Mumbai cricket, and levy charges on fans who want to visit it, taking a cue from F C Barcelona football club in Spain.