Amol Kale elected new MCA president

Amol Kale beat Sandeep Patil by 25 votes to become the new president of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) after a fiercly-contested election here on Thursday.

Kale garnered 183 votes and Patil got 158 as 343 of the 356 eligible voters participated in the election. Two votes were rendered invalid.

The Shelar-Pawar Group (SPG) won 10 of the 14 apex council seats, while Patil-led Mumbai Cricket Group had to settle for three posts.

The last time MCA had a Test cricketer president was in 1992, when the late Madhav Mantri finished his four-year stint as the president after losing to Manohar Joshi.

Ajinkya Naik, the consensus candidate nominated by both the groups for the secretary’s post, received 286 votes — the highest ever for any candidate in the history of MCA election — and won by a margin of 251 votes over independent Mayank Khandwala (35). Neil Savant, the third candidate, got 20 votes.

For the treasurer’s post, Arman Mallick (162 votes) from the SPG group prevailed over the incumbent Jagdish Achrekar by a single vote. Achrekar sought a recount but the margin remained the same. Sanjeev Khanolkar polled 18 votes.

The candidates from Patil’s group elected to the councillor posts were Abhay Hadap, Kaushil Godbole and Sandeep Vichare.

Jitendra Awhad (163) and Milind Narvekar (221) also won convincingly.

Elected apex council: President: Amol Kale (183 votes); secretary: Ajinkya Naik (286); treasurer: Arman Mallick (162); joint secretary: Deepak Patil (unopposed).

Councillors: Milind Narvekar (221), Nilesh Bhosale (219), Kaushik Godbole (205), Abhay Hadap (205), Suraj Samat (170), Jitendra Awhad (163), Mangesh Satam (157), Sandeep Vichare (154), and Pramod Yadav (152).

T20 League governing council: Chairman: Vihang Sarnaik (unopposed); member: Ganesh Iyer (213).