Hadap beats Samat to become MCA Secretary

Abhay Hadap (right) with Milind Rege at the Wankhede Stadium yesterday. Pic/Ashish Raje

Abhay Hadap beat his fellow Apex Council member Suraj Samat by 55 votes to become the Mumbai Cricket Association's (MCA) Secretary, in an interest-filled election at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday.

Hadap got 196 votes, while Samat secured 141. "I never dreamt that I'd become the MCA secretary one day, or reach this level. This is a common man's victory. My win was possible because of all the maidan club secretaries and cricketers," Hadap told reporters after his triumph.

Elaborating on his plans, he added: "I have one year and that is more than sufficient for me to do a lot for Mumbai cricket and the maidans. I'd like to work with the Apex Council and our president Ajinkya Naik."

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MCA chief Naik, who backed Hadap, said: "He has been working for maidan cricket for the last 35 years. Around 25 years ago, when I was a kid, I played in the Ajit Naik Memorial U-14 tournament at Worli. Hadap is one of the pioneers of that tournament, and is still organising that event."

The former India cricketers who voted were Sachin Tendulkar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Sanjay Manjrekar, Balvinder Singh Sandhu, Abhishek Nayar, Paras Mhambrey, Sameer Dighe, Jatin Paranjape, Karsan Ghavri, Sanjay Bangar, Salil Ankola, Abey Kuruvilla, Nilesh Kulkarni, Suru Nayak, Lalchand Rajput and Avishkar Salvi.

Former India women's team captain and current MCA women's cricket advisor Diana Edulji, ex-India cricketer Shobha Mundkar and former Mumbai skipper Milind Rege were also present to vote.