No time for BCCI responsibility - Pawar

Minutes after his return to cricket administration as the elected president of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), Sharad Pawar said he couldn't spare any time for the BCCI.

"I don't have time to go to the BCCI as I don't have time for any responsibility. I might go for meetings but I don't have time to take up any responsibility," Pawar, the former MCA, BCCI and ICC president, said after ending his two-year hiatus from cricket administration.

Pawar, who is also the union agriculture minister, will be busy with the forthcoming federal elections, expected to be held in mid-2014. However, his presence at the BCCI working committee meetings may spark the formation of a pressure group against BCCI president, N Srinivasan.

Despite facing probity questions following the IPL corruption scandal, which saw his son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan, being arrested and chargesheeted, Srinivasan was elected unopposed in September.

In other results, three of the four Ranji Trophy cricketers who contested for 11 managing committee posts were also elected. While Lalchand Rajput, Abey Kuruvilla and Sanjay Patil got the nod of the 329 voters, Atul Ranade couldn't make the cut. The inclusion of former cricketers in the MCA comes a day after Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath announced they were not going to take part in the upcoming KSCA elections.

BCCI vice-president Ravi Savant, who was the interim president for the last 14 months following the death of former president Vilasrao Deshmukh, was elected as vice-president along with Vijay Patil. Nitin Dalal and PV Shetty retained their positions as joint secretaries. Vinod Deshpande, who was interim vice-president, replaced Mayank Khandawala as the treasurer.

Meanwhile, Pawar quashed the four-member inquiry panel that had been formed to investigate 405 unsold tickets for the World Cup final played at the Wankhede Stadium on April 2, 2011.

Following corruption allegations, the MCA had set up a panel whose report was leaked in the media before it was submitted to the MCA office-bearers in the build-up to the election. As a result, members at the AGM, that was followed by a vote, vociferously opposed the manner in which the inquiry was conducted and and the criticised the information leak. Pawar then proposed that the inquiry panel's report be rejected and the panel be disbanded.