Mumbai Cricket Association secretary Ajinkya Naik defeated vice-president Sanjay Naik by 107 votes to be elected as the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) president. With this win, the 37-year-old became the youngest MCA president so far.
Election officer J.S. Saharia confirmed that 335 votes were cast out of which Ajinkya got 221 votes while Sanjay Naik representing the Ashish Shelar Group had to settle for 114 votes. The election for the secretary’s post will be held in 45 days as Ajinkya Naik has vacated the position.
Speaking about this opportunity, Ajinkya Naik, as quoted by Sportstar said, “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. I have been serving MCA since 2015 in various capacities and it’s a pyramid-like journey, thanks to maidan clubs and their secretaries.”
“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.”
Ajinkya Naik also spoke about his plans of creating employment opportunities for the young cricketers. Naik said, ” We started the Knowledge Centre last month. Now my plan is to present employment opportunities to young cricketers. 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.”