The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) turned out to be a stormy affair yesterday.
The unsold tickets controversy pertaining to the 2011 World Cup final between India and Sri Lanka played at the Wankhede Stadium was the highlight of the discussion.
Recently, the inquiry committee report was leaked to the media without any official submission by the inquiry committee to the MCA. After a heated debate, it was decided to consider the report null and void.
Prof Ratnakar Shetty, who was the MCA treasurer during the World Cup, objected to the appointment of complainant Ravi Mandrekar as part of the inquiry committee.
Sharad Pawar, who returned as MCA president unopposed yesterday, said: “Nowhere have I seen a complainant being in the inquiry committee. That’s unacceptable. It is clearly an intention to defame some people. We should reject this report,” Pawar said.
Shetty urged MCA office-bearers to submit the report that he submitted to late MCA president Vilasrao Deshmukh to the General Body. He then clarified why the 405 tickets went unsold. “525 tickets were balance on March 31, 2011.
After the semi-final, Shripad Halbe (part of the ticketing committee) and myself realised that 125 tickets were already distributed to the managing committee. The remaining tickets could have been misused, so we sealed those 405 tickets,” Shetty said.
Meanwhile, Pawar presented a mega gift to MCA members when he announced they are acquiring a new piece of land near Dombivli. “I wanted to do something for the eastern suburbs.
Today I received a letter from Abhishek Lodha of the Lodha group who will be giving us 13 acres of land at Re 1 for a 99-year lease to develop cricket infrastructure,” Pawar said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
