The fight for the reins of the Mumbai Cricket Association at its biennial elections on June 17 will be between incumbent President Sharad Pawar and outgoing Vice President Vijay Patil.
NCP chief Pawar, backed by the ruling Bal Mahaddalkar group, and Patil are the only two contestants left in the fray for the post of the President after the withdrawals of Ravi Savant and Ashish Shelar, both from the Mahaddalkar panel, before today's deadline.
Pawar told reporters before addressing his supporters that he probably would have withdrawn from the contest if rival candidate Patil had given an undertaking not to demand international and IPL games to be played at the D Y Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai of which Patil is the President.
"Had he given such an undertaking I probably would have withdrawn from the fray," said Pawar.
Pawar also said that granting of international matches for a particular venue needs the green signal from the ICC.
"There are only two venues in Mumbai which have been approved by the ICC - Wankhede Stadium of MCA and Cricket Club of India's Brabourne stadium.
"For hosting IPL mathes at the Wankhede Stadiunm MCA gets paid in lakhs which is beneficial to the association," Pawar explained.
He was reacting to Patil's remarks two days ago, asking Pawar to give his blessing to his group 'Cricket First' and withdraw from contesting for the President's post.
Among other interesting contests is the fight for the Vice president's post between former India and Mumbai captain Dilip Vengsarkar, who is with the Pawar-Mahaddalkar group, and his former team mate and ex India pacer Abey Kuruvilla, who is contesting for the Patil-led group.
Former Test and Mumbai opener Lalchand Rajput will be contesting for the Joint Secretary's post from Patil's panel.
