No Manohars in VCA body, Anand Jaiswal likely president

NAGPUR: For the first time in several years, there will be no Manohars on the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) executive body.
Even though ICC chairman Shashank Manohar and his son Adwait were ineligible to contest the elections, they have ensured that a trustworthy friend will head the VCA. Anand Jaiswal, senior counsel at the high court, is likely to become the new president.
Monday was the last date of submission of nomination forms for election of office bearers, executive members and selectors.All candidates are expected to be elected unopposed.
According to reliable sources, Bhupendra Singh Bhatti, a former BCCI panel umpire, will be the new secretary, Parimal Vaidya the joint secretary and Murali Pantula, a chartered accountant, the treasurer. Former India pacer Prashant Vaidya will be the vice-president and is expected to oversee all cricket operations.
All these members are close associates of Shashank Manohar.
With VCA adopting the Lodha Panel recommendations, only three members — Bhatti, Pantula and Parimal — of the present 19-member executive body were eligible to be contest the elections.
According to the recommendations, no member should have held any executive post for more than nine years. This automatically disqualified Adwait who was a vice president for the last two terms.
The new executive body will be elected on November 13 for three-year period (2016-2019). VCA is one of three affiliated state associations (Tripura and Rajasthan are the other two) to have adopted the Lodha Panel recommendations. The new body, which will now be called Apex Council, will have a president, vice-president, secretary, joint secretary, treasurer and five executive members which will include a players’ representative.
Jaiswal’s name was doing the rounds after the Special General Body meeting on September 30 when VCA adopted the recommendations. It’s learnt that ex-VCA and BCCI president Shashank Manohar wanted a ‘trustworthy yet strong’ person to become the president.
“Jaiswal has always been close to the Manohar family. He was also an executive member in the past. So, he knows a lot about administration. Besides, he doesn’t come under the cooling off period as recommended by Lodha Panel,” the source said.
An office-bearer can only be re-elected to any post after a three-year cooling off period, as per the recommendations.
Prashant Vaidya has been specifically brought in to “take a call on all cricketing matters”. “With only nine members in the executive body, VCA needed someone with cricketing acumen,” said sources.
Prashant is part of VCA’s cricket advisory and development committee for the last five years. “Like Jaiswal, the cooling off period doesn’t apply to Vaidya so he was an automatic choice,” the source added.
With Prashant Vaidya’s election, cricket enthusiasts would be hoping that VCA’s residential academy would be revived. He was the first of the academy which was shut down earlier this year.