PANJIM: The Goa Cricket Association (GCA) elections held on Thursday has left the pitch looking very difficult for anyone interested in playing with a straight bat.
Vipul Phadke will be the new President of the GCA. He was earlier the general secretary in the previous committee. Shamba Desai is the new vice- president. Rohan Desai is the secretary and he was elected unopposed. Rupesh Naik is now the joint secretary and Dayya Pagi will take the post of treasurer.
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What is astonishing is that Phadke is the only candidate from his team to have won. All the others lost. With the exception of the post of President, all the candidates who won were from the rival Chetan Desai group.
This could queer the pitch with both the groups now having to work with each other to ensure their plans for the future come true.
Chetan Desai said he was keen on ensuring that work on the new stadium commenced soon so that people in the state would be able to watch international cricket.
Phadke, the new President, said he would work with the team to ensure cricket prospered in the state.
Vipul said, “I would like to continue to do positive work in the next couple of years. I hope the new panel will work for the benefit of cricket.
“We had presented a different panel and this is now a mix of both panels. I may be the President but the vice-president and treasurer are from another group, so let’s see what happens.
“We cannot discriminate with anyone from another panel, so let’s see. Everyone should come on the same page and work for cricket. My way of working is different from theirs so that was the reason both these panels were formed.”
Phadke added, “We selected people because they were very positive and wanted to work for the game. Unfortunately it didn’t work out.”
