A day after he was elected president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wadiyar has hinted an end to the hostilities with the rival Brijesh Patel group, stating that the two factions should work together for the good of the game.
Wadiyar, who visited the Chinnaswamy stadium on Monday evening, stressed that he was all for finding a compromise solution. “Yes, I know that we are two groups working together and we need to find a formula of compromise so that the best ideas are used.
“When I say compromise I mean to say no confrontation, at least in the beginning. There is no point in starting with a confrontation with Brijesh Patel,” said Wadiyar and added that his first priority would be the smooth conduct of the one-day international against Australia here on September 29.
“We have to conduct that match well and Brijesh is well aware of the day-to-day affairs of conducting an international match. I will discuss it with him and we need to ensure that the match goes well.”
On the charges of financial irregularities levelled against the Patel group during the election campaign, Wadiyar said the law would take its course on the issue. “We have stated the facts and in fact we discussed these issues in the AGM too yesterday. I don’t want to say anything more at this stage.”
As Patel joined the media interaction in the KSCA presiden’ts chamber, Wadiyar underlined the need to work together again. “We will take the best ideas from both groups and work together for the game. Yes, in the campaign, a lot of words were exchanged. But even political parties become friends once the elections are over.
And here we are not talking about political parties, there are no high-strung egos. And I believe two different heads are better than one and I am sure we will work well together,” he said. Patel too sounded a conciliatory note. “We are all sportsmen and as Wadiyar said ‘two heads are better than one’. They are also sportsmen who have the good of cricket at their heart and I am sure the differences can be worked out,” said the KSCA secretary, who preferred not to talk about the defamation suit he threatened to file against Wadiyar.
“Let us not talk about that. It’s all over. We want to work towards improving the game. We have already done some good work and we need to carry that forward.”
Wadiyar said he would work towards improving the game in the rural areas. “Promoting cricket at all levels is the number one priority. Improving cricket in the mofussil areas, improving the standard of club cricket, all these are issues that we need to work on.”