Mumbai: The Indian cricket administration, which had a clear stamp of Nationalist Congress (NCP) president Sharad Pawar for over a decade till 2016, is seeing the rise of yet another Pawar in the ranks.
Sharad Pawar’s grand nephew Rohit Pawar was on Sunday elected unopposed as president of the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA).
“I have always worked for sports in whatever capacity I can, but I always wished that I could work for my favourite game cricket. I got that opportunity through the MCA because of the blessings of Pawarsaheb (Sharad Pawar),” Rohit tweeted after his victory on Sunday.
“Pawarsaheb has done a mountain of work for all sports. It may not be possible for a common worker like me to scale those heights, but I will keep looking up at them like a beacon and will keep working honestly for the game under his guidance,” the 37-year-old NCP MLA from the Karjat Jamkhed constituency added.
ThePrint reached him over phone but is yet to receive a response. The copy will be updated once a reply is received.
Rohit is the grandson of Sharad Pawar’s elder brother Appasaheb Pawar, and has been in politics since 2017 when he won the Pune Zilla Parishad seat by a margin of over 12,000 votes. He won his debut assembly election in 2019 from Karjat Jamkhed.
Soon after he was elected as MCA president, Rohit inspected the MCA’s Gahunje stadium along with his cricketer friend Kedar Jadhav on Sunday evening.
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Cricket and Pawar
Sharad Pawar, 82, served as president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) from 2005 to 2008. He was the president of the International Cricket Council (ICC) from 2010 to 2012, becoming the second Indian after Jagmohan Dalmiya to hold the post.
The NCP chief was also the president of the MCA from 2001 to 2011 after which Congress’ Vilasrao Deshmukh took over. Pawar came back as MCA president for the third time in 2015. He, however, had to resign the following year after the Supreme Court-appointed Justice R.M. Lodha committee prescribed 70 years as the maximum age for cricket administrators.
During Pawar’s tenure in cricket administration, he was known for building new stadiums in Mumbai’s Kandivali and Bandra Kurla Complex, and holding the ICC World Cup final in Mumbai in 2011.
After his election as the MCA president, Rohit tweeted that cricket had always been one of his favourite games and that he will make “more and more facilities available for players.”
The NCP MLA, who is also chief executive of Baramati Agro Ltd, has faced flak for allegedly not having any background of cricket. Nilesh Rane, son of Union Minister Narayan Rane, and secretary of Maharashtra BJP, on Sunday tweeted his congratulations to Rohit but questioned his contribution to cricket.
“Congratulations to him, but we don’t understand what exactly is his contribution to cricket for being elected as president. His grandfather brought cheerleaders to cricket. Let’s see what this sir brings,” Rane said.
While Rohit has not directly responded to Rane, his supporters on social media slammed the rival, counter questioning how Union Minister Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah became the BCCI secretary.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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