A handful of BCCI officials are trying to persuade Advocate Abhay Apte to withdraw his resignation as president of the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA). People following MCA activities in Pune and other districts under its jurisdiction said that Apte, along with MCA vice-president Vikaykumar Tamhane and treasurer Vikas Kakatkar submitted their resignation letter to the Executive Committee recently.
Respected for his independent and forthright views, Apte was not averse to accepting the radical Lodha panel reforms in cricket report at the BCCI level. He worked closely with the BCCI acting Secretary, Amitabh Choudhary, towards this end after succeeding Ajay Shirke as president of the MCA in the first week of January.
This was immediately following the Supreme Court order of January 2, 2017 that removed Shirke as BCCI Secretary and Anurag Thakur as BCCI president. The court also disqualified Shirke from holding any position in the MCA as he had completed more than nine years as an office-bearer in the State body.
The MCA Managing Committee will consider the resignations of Apte, Tamhane and Kakatkar on September 4.
It was under Apte’s leadership that the MCA hosted two successful international matches — an ODI against England and a Test match against Australia. The MCA has been allotted the first ODI against New Zealand in October and hence officials at the BCCI and MCA want him to stay for the smooth conduct of the match.
Apte, however, is heading to Australia on Thursday for a 10-day vacation with family.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) and the BCCI CEO Rahul Johri have been told that Shirke showed his British passport to the MCA managing committee members at a recent meeting. Shirke has taken interest in developing the modern cricket stadium at Gahunje Village and brought in representatives of districts into administration after the exit of long-time MCA president Dyaneshwat Agashe who died while in judicial custody in 2009.
Comments
SHARE