Raju Kulkarni resigns as CIC chairman

Raju Kulkarni and Kiran Mokashi, the last two surviving members of Mumbai Cricket Association’s Cricket Improvement Committee, resigned — leaving Mumbai cricket in further disarray.

Former India pacer Raju Kulkarni was the chairman of the MCA's Cricket Improvement Committee.

Raju Kulkarni and Kiran Mokashi, the last two surviving members of Mumbai Cricket Association’s (MCA’s) Cricket Improvement Committee (CIC), resigned on Thursday, thus leaving Mumbai cricket in further disarray.

While Kulkarni, the former India pacer who was appointed chairman ahead of the recently-concluded domestic season, emailed his resignation to the MCA ad-hoc committee on Thursday morning, Mokashi quit later in the day.

“I wish to resign from the cricket Improvement Committee with immediate effect,” Kulkarni wrote in an email to MCA’s ad-hoc committee. “Since my appointment was made by Honourable judges as COA, I did not want to let them down and leave it in the middle of the season in spite of several disturbing issues in Mumbai cricket.

The duo’s resignation follows that of the the other high-profile members during what turned out to be a largely forgettable season for Mumbai cricket across formats and age-groups. While Karsan Ghavri quit the CIC in January, former captain Amol Muzumdar and opener Sahil Kukreja resigned in solidarity with the senior selection panel led by Ajit Agarkar last month.

READ: Ajit Agarkar and Co. resign as Mumbai selectors

Sportstar understands that with the unceremonious exit of the senior selectors - Agarkar and Co. resigned after realising that their sacking was imminent following an inexplicable resolution by a group of members - all the CIC members were going to resign. While Muzumdar and Kukreja acted swiftly, the two seniors in the committee - Kulkarni and Mokashi - waited for almost three weeks to ensure smooth transition.

With a majority of junior selectors having also resigned and a headless CIC, the off-season cricket activities of the MCA have virtually come to a standstill. After all, the CIC, is primarily responsible for appointment of coaches and selectors of Mumbai’s various teams. And with neither selectors nor CIC in place, the off-season preparatory activities will virtually come to a standstill.

With the MCA ad-hoc committee having already started planning for the second edition of the Mumbai T20 League - to be sandwiched between the IPL final on May 12 and World Cup starting May 30 - it would be interesting to see the steps taken by the administrators to start planning for the next domestic season after a lacklustre outing across age-groups and seniors last time around.