Former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad urges for early KSCA polls

Bengaluru: Former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad-led team, which is aspiring to contest the polls to elect the new set of office bearers to the Karnataka State Cricket Association, demanded that the incumbent administrators conduct the elections without any further delay.

“We have all been waiting for the announcement (of the election) to happen. It was supposed to happen long back and by this time a new committee should have taken over the running of the association,” said Prasad told the media on Monday.

“So, obviously, you know, it (election) was supposed to be held before 30th of September according to rule and the KSCA by-law. So, I think it’s high time the people who are running the show now at KSCA should call for an election,” he added.

The tenure of the current regime headed by BCCI treasurer Raghuram Bhatt ended on September 30, but a definite date for election is yet to be announced, though the speculation was that the polls would be conducted either in October or November.

Prasad, along with former KSCA treasurer Vinay Mruthyunjaya and former Indian women’s cricket team captain Shanta Rangaswamy, said the election should be initiated at the earliest to ensure “smooth functioning of the association.”

The KSCA has been without an elected secretary and treasurer following the resignation of A Shankar and ES Jairam taking the moral responsibility for the stampede near Chinnaswamy Stadium during Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s maiden IPL victory celebration in early June.

President Raghuram Bhat has to vacate his post after being elected the treasurer of the BCCI last month.

In the tragic turn of events, 11 fans were killed and several others left injured.

Vinay claimed the letter written by the KSCA CEO Shubhendu Ghosh to the Deputy Registrar of Societies, requesting an exemption from 45-day clause to fill the vacant slots and instead grant time till September 30 to hold elections for the posts of all office bearers.   

Vinay also charged that the current set of administrators was “wrongly-interpreting” the nine-year-clause in their attempt to reject the nominations of some of the contestants in their panel.

Shanta, meanwhile, claimed that she approached a lower court and got a temporary stay to prevent those candidates from being disqualified.

When sought their reply, Sanjay Poll (acting president) refused to comment while calls to MS Vinay (acting secretary) went unanswered.