Sharad Pawar steps down as MCA chief following Lodha Panel's 70-year age cap, but managing committee unlikely to accept his resignation
Just two days after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Anurag Thakur was pulled up by Supreme Court on alleged perjury charges, Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) president Sharad Pawar handed his resignation letter to the MCA secretary on Saturday.
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In his resignation letter, the senior politician, who was formerly the International Cricket Council (ICC) and BCCI president, mentioned that the SC's 70-year cap on administrators and the apex body's description of these positions as 'lucrative' saddened him and forced him to take the extreme step.
After submitting his resignation, Pawar avoided the waiting media and the letter was read out to the press by MCA managing committee member Vinod Deshpande.
"While taking the decision regarding cricket, the Supreme Court has said that the officials should not be above 70 years of age and they have described these positions as 'lucrative' which made me very sad and that's why I don't have any wish to work any more," Pawar wrote.
"The Supreme Court has taken a decision that officials above 70 years of age should not remain in cricket bodies. This decision is applicable to me. That is why I am resigning from the position of MCA president and I request you (MCA secretary) to accept it," the 76-year-old Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader added in the letter.
MCA joint secretary Dr PV Shetty later said that the managing committee members will meet soon to take a call on Pawar's resignation.
"We will be placing the president's resignation letter before the managing committee. The date of the meeting will be decided later," Dr Shetty said.
However, MCA sources said that the committee is very unlikely to accept his resignation. "If we accept it, we also have to submit our resignations. So it's not going to happen. We don't want to continue without him," a source said.
Pawar was MCA president from 2001-02 to 2010-11. He got re-elected after defeating Dr Vijay Patil in 2014. MCA's next election could be held in April 2017.
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