CoA takes charge of Mumbai Cricket Association

Justices (Retd.) Hemant Gokhale and V. M. Kanade arrived at the Mumbai Cricket Association office on Wednesday to formally take charge of its management.

Justices (retd.) V. M. Kanade (left) and Hemant Gokhale arrive at Mumbai Cricket Association office on Wednesday.

Justices (Retd.) Hemant Gokhale and V. M. Kanade took charge of the management of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) here on Wednesday. Gokhale and Kanade form the Committee of Administrators (CoA), appointed by the Bombay High Court .

The CoA members arrived at the MCA office at around 5pm and were received by the committee members designated as “persons” as agreed upon by the counsels of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the MCA, and by the Muslim Sports Club, a member of the MCA.

The Muslim Sports Club had filed a writ petition to appoint the CoA to run the daily affairs of the MCA and to implement the Supreme Court order of July 18, 2016 that accepted the Justice Lodha Committee reforms in cricket for the BCCI and its member State associations.

According to the directive of the Court, the MCA now doesn’t have a president, secretary and managing committee members.

Meeting on April 25

After having allotted routine association work to the five members mentioned in the court order — Unmesh Khanvilkar, Ganesh Iyer, Shahalam Sheikh, Navin Shetty and Arman Malik — Justice Gokhale said: “We are here to implement the Supreme Court and High Court order. We have called a meeting of the members of the MCA on April 25. We will hear them, but the MCA has to amend its constitution in line with the Supreme Court order. We will try to complete the work by June 30 after which we will not be here.”

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Ashish Shelar, who had replaced Sharad Pawar as president, declined to accept any work, and left the meeting. He also sent a short ‘thank you’ note to the people he was associated with during his tenure in the MCA as vice-president and president.

The CoA has put off the SGM convened on April 16 to amend the MCA constitution. Justice Gokhale said Justice Kanade will supervise the Indian Premier League (IPL) tickets issue for the next two matches to be played at the Wankhede Stadium. He also said that Chartered Accountant Aditi Sawant will help them in all financial matters.