Ajit Wadekar lashes out at Mumbai Cricket Association

Peeved at the Mumbai Cricket Association's decision to make some of the eminent former cricketers of the city sit in the stands at the Wankhede Stadium and watch the IPL match on Wednesday (April 20) night between the Mumbai Indians and the Royal Challengers Bangalore instead of enjoying the action from the president's box (which has been the norm until now) Ajit Wadekar, the former India skipper, has lashed out against the association.

"I was speaking to Nari Contractor (another ex-India captain), who too has been denied passes of the president's box. This is this first time something like that has happened. It shows how shameless these officials, who have no regard for our contribution to the game, are. They must realise that they're there because of the hard work we once put in. None of them are even picking up my phone. I've given away my tickets to someone else. This is an insult to us, and shows how much these officials think about the game," lamented Wadekar, who led India to historic Test series triumphs in the West Indies and England in 1971, while speaking to Times of India.

"I don't think Sharad Pawar (MCA president) can do something like this. I'm sure it is these officials who aren't passing on the tickets to us," rued another known former cricketer.

A Mumbai Cricket Association official, though, defended the association's move, which would surely make it extremely unpopular amongst top India and Mumbai ex-cricketers. "The president may have decided to stop the practice of reserving tickets for former cricketers after seeing that they don't turn up for the match eventually. Most of the time, you can only see Dilip Vengsarkar (former India skipper) there during the game," he said.

Explaining the break-up of tickets in the president's box till now, he said: "Out of the 200 tickets in the president's box, 100 go to the BCCI.The MCA president has 100 tickets, out of which 50 go to the managing committee of the association."