Ajinkya Naik becomes the youngest president of Mumbai Cricket Association

At just 37 years of age, Ajinkya Naik became the youngest president of the Mumbai Cricket Association. Ajinkya defeated Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar’s candidate Sanjay Naik by 107 votes. The former school and club cricketer served as a member of the Apex Council in 2019 and was elected Secretary of the MCA in 2022.

Election officer J.S. Saharia revealed that a total of 235 votes were cast where 221 votes went for Ajinkya despite not having any backup from any politician or party. However, Ajinkya expressed there have been a few "unseen powers" that have helped him beat Sanjay Naik in a one-sided election.

“There were a lot of unseen powers, and slowly you will come to know who they were. Our mentor is Sharad Pawar sir. We have been following him for long now,” Ajinkya said after winning the election.

“It’s a win for Mumbai maidaan and their club secretaries as I’m just one of them. I have been part of various committees for more than one decade. My journey has been one of a pyramid. The result came as per my expectations," Ainjkya added.

"Plan is to present employment opportunities"

Ajinkya had served as the secretary of the association under Amol Kale but the election had to be called after the demise of Amol Kale last month. Ajinkya now wants to focus on providing more jobs for the cricketers and looking to create a "career fair" for the players.

“We started the Knowledge Centre last month. Now my plan is to present employment opportunities to young cricketers,” he said. “We will plan a career fair, wherein we will invite all the government organisations, corporates and we as the MCA apex council will request HR departments to offer permanent jobs to our players. Most cricketers are employed on a contract basis, so our priority is to secure their life.”