Savant elected MCA's interim president

Mumbai: MCA treasurer Ravi Savant on Friday defeated Prof Ratnakar Shetty by 10 votes to five to take over the reins of the Mumbai Cricket Association as its interim president in place of Vilasrao Deshmukh, who passed away early this month.

As per the MCA regulations, the 17-member managing committee elected the interim president following the death of Deshmukh.

Savant, the MCA treasurer, will remain as president of the association till the next elections scheduled for April, 2013 after getting the better of Shetty, who later decided to quit his post as vice president of the association.

Ravi Savant on Friday defeated Prof Ratnakar Shetty by 10 votes to five to take over the reins of MCA.

"I am sending a letter to MCA that I am stepping down as the vice president. I have lost the confidence of the managing committee," Prof Shetty, who is also the chief administrative officer of the cricket board, said.

Mayank Khandwala took over as treasurer after his name was accepted unanimously. Incidentally, Khandwala had fought the elections last year as a panelist of former India captain Dilip Venggsarkar's group.

Joint secretary Nitin Dalal, who is presently abroad, remained absent. Savant later told reporters that the process of electing an interim president had to be gone through.

"It was one of the formalities that had to be completed following the unfortunate demise of our president (Deshmukh).

I was elected as the interim president in the secret ballot in which I got 10 votes and Prof Shetty got five. Mayank Khandwala was unanimously elected as the treasurer in my place," said Savant.

(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)