“We have elections on June 28 and they know that the secretary has to finalize the list. They want to rig the elections and remove me from the post of secretary in an unauthorized manner and appointed Sudin Kamat. I have informed the Board about the situation and will go to the court to fight for my rights,” said Chetan.
Dr Salkar moved swiftly to appoint Sudin Kamat as the new GCA secretary ejecting Chetan Dessai from his current post.
The Goa Cricket Association (GCA) managing committee’s meet held at the GCA headquarters, in Porvorim witnessed former GCA President Vinod Phadke, Akbar Mulla, Manohar Naik, Desh Kinlekar, Suryakant Naik and Suraj Lotlikar strongly objecting to the introduction of the electronic voting system.
Chetan backed the members actions on objecting to the electronic voting system. He felt that the system was not fool proof and required authentication from reliable resources like the government bodies.
“This electronic voting system is undertaken by two students of BITS Pilani, Vasco. Dr Raghu from BITS Pilani is hand-in-glove with Dr Salkar. We suspect the authenticity of the process and it is also not traceable,” alleged Chetan.
The imbroglio snowballed into the public domain with Dr Salkar, GCA president releasing a press note stating that he had removed Chetan Dessai from the post of secretary but he (Chetan) remains to be a member of the managing committee.
Chetan slammed Dr Salkar’s action on technical grounds.
“They can’t remove me. They need a two-third majority and they don’t have it but they say they will prove in the next managing committee’s meeting. In the next meeting you can’t have any decision at all due to the elections,” informed Chetan.
“They want to rig the elections without transparency. I would have given the correct representation of the clubs. The manipulation is happening at the club level. There are 104 clubs who will come to vote but they will say no and will see after the elections,” added Chetan.
Chetan commenting on the voting process stated that the Election Committee would decide on whether elections would be conducted electronically or through paper ballot.
“We had suggested the name of Prabhakar Timble, former State Chief Election Commissioner but they objected to it. That very well shows what they want.”
Replying to a question if Dr Salkar as a President, had the right to choose his own Election Committee, Chetan stated that he (Dr Salkar) has his majority and is rigging in all possible ways.
It remains to be seen if cricket suffers as the titans clash for supremacy. Only time will tell.