Ajinkya Naik elected as the youngest MCA president

As per the provisional result Ajinkya won 221-114 in a one-on-one contest with Sanjay.

Ajinkya Naik wins the MCA president election held on Tuesday. | Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini/The Hindu

Ajinkya Naik, the incumbent secretary, has defeated vice-president Sanjay Naik by a whopping margin of 107 votes to be elected as the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) president. Ajinkya, 37, thus became the youngest MCA president so far.

Election officer J.S. Saharia announced that 335 votes were cast, with Ajinkya gaining 221 while Sanjay – representing the Ashish Shelar Group – had to be content with 114 votes. The election for the secretary’s post, vacated after Ajinkya took charge, will now be held in 45 days.

“This is the victory of maidan cricket. It’s a triumph of all the maidan club secretaries, schools and college gymkhana secretaries and the former cricketers. I am only their representative,” Ajinkya said.

“I have been serving MCA since 2015 in various capacities and its a pyramid-like journey, thanks to maidan clubs and their secretaries.”

The battle between the Naiks turned political with every passing day over the last week. While Ajinkya maintained the maidan representative narrative and refrained from seeking votes citing a political leader during the campaign, Sanjay saw Ashish Shelar, the BJP heavyweight and BCCI treasurer, going all out in his support.

But the fact that Sharad Pawar distanced himself officially from the election meant that he disapproved of Sanjay’s candidacy. It is also understood that other political leaders, including some of the BJP top brass in the state, put their weight behind Ajinkya, whose father in law is a legislator.

“It was expected but I was keeping quiet till the result was official. It was cricket and a lot of unseen powers in the game that were backing me. But definitely our mentor has been Sharad Pawar sir. He has been backing me and we have been seeking his blessings all the time.”

The election had to be called due to Amol Kale’s demise on June 10. Ajinkya stated that generating employment opportunities will be on top of his agenda.

“We started the Knowledge Centre last month. Now my plan is to present employment opportunities to young cricketers,” he said. “We will plan a career fair, wherein we will invite all the government organisations, corporates and we as the MCA apex council will request HR departments to offer permanent jobs to our players. Most cricketers are employed on a contract basis, so our priority is to secure their life.”