Mumbai cricket: Ajit Agarkar's selection panel faces SGM storm again

Ajit Agarkar

The call to sack Mumbai's senior selection panel has resurfaced after the 41-time champions' failure to qualify for the Ranji Trophy knockout stage. Parsee Gymkhana's vice-president and cricket secretary Khodadad Yazdegardi has been notified by the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) to call for a Special General Meeting in response to his earlier notices.

Yazdegardi will now shoot off an eight-day notice to MCA members with the agenda to replace the Ajit Agarkar-led senior and U-23 selection committee. In July last year, ahead of the season, Yazdegardi moved a resolution against the selection panel, alleging that the four-member committee do not watch local matches and as a result, top performers on the club circuit were ignored when it came to picking the Mumbai probables.

However, the Bombay High Court-appointed two-member Committee of Administrators dismissed the resolution. Thereafter, the MCA administration was in a vacuum with the CoA quitting immediately after the new MCA constitution was registered in September.

Yazdegardi, however, clarified that the resolution was moved as the Bombay HC has appointed an ad-hoc committee to run the day-to-day affairs of the MCA. "Once the CoA left, there was no one to whom I could have notified in the MCA for the SGM. Since there is a committee in place now, I once again moved my resolution and they informed me that they are not empowered to call an SGM. However, they also said that as per the constitution, I am within my rights to call the SGM," Yazdegardi told mid-day.

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