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This is an archive article published on September 18, 2013
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Opinion Don’t blame the politician

Politicians at the helm of affairs is nothing new at the the MCA HQ.

September 18, 2013 02:20 AM IST First published on: Sep 18, 2013 at 02:20 AM IST

As soon as Prithviraj Chavan popped up as a representative of a club affiliated with the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA),the writing was on the wall: the Maharashtra CM would contest for the MCA chief’s post.

Politicians at the helm of affairs is nothing new at the the MCA HQ,for the president’s chair has previously seated chief ministers like the late Vilasrao Deshmukh,Sharad Pawar and Manohar Joshi.

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For the last one year,Ravi Savant,a chartered accountant,has helmed the MCA. His ascension to the president’s chair was seen as a sign that it was now possible for a common professional (read: not a politician) to run a cricket association.

Many present and former players and administrators had cried foul for years that politicians swamped the big posts,reducing them to the sidelines. But it was on their invitation that an array of politicians are now lining up for the mid-October polls.

Since Savant took over as the MCA chief,there has been plenty of infighting among the high-profile Cricket Improvement Committee members.

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Some known names resigned,and the ambitious CIC was eventually disbanded.

A big-name politician may have been able to minimise this sort of factionalism.

But strong administrators don’t necessarily have to come from a political background,as the likes of IS Bindra,Jagmohan Dalmiya and N Srinivasan have proved.

The last one year was perhaps the best time for MCA’s administration to prove their mettle,but apart from restructuring the Kanga league they have failed miserably. With the biennial MCA elections scheduled for October 18,the political heavyweights have emerged from the wings,egged on by the same administrators who’ve failed to perform their task.

With big names from state politics coming in,it’s natural that these administrators will be sidelined. However,this time they’ll struggle to pin the blame on anyone else for being bossed over.

DEVENDRA PANDEY

Devendra is a special correspondent based in Mumbai

devendra.pandey@expressindia.com