Mumbai Cricket Association
The Mumbai cricket Association or MCA (Marathi: मुंबई क्रिकेट संघ) is the governing body for cricket in Mumbai and its surrounding regions like Thane and Navi Mumbai. The association comes under west zone. The Association was established in 1930 and it has a Constitution. Sharad Pawar was re-elected as the president of Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) after defeating Vijay Patil by a margin of 27 votes at the biennial elections held in Mumbai. Pawar defeated Patil 172-145 in a straight contest for MCA president.[1]
The Mumbai cricket team is the team for The Mumbai cricket association in the Ranji Trophy. The team has won over 41 titles, the most recent being in 2015-16. It has also come runner-up in the final of the Ranji Trophy a total of 4 times. The association owns the Wankhede Stadium, near Churchgate railway station built in 1975. The office of the association is located in the same building.
To promote democratic values and to bring in new ideas and enthusiasm, the constitution provides that no individual can continue in any post for more than eight years (four terms of 2 years) consecutively. After completing 8 years in a position he/she can occupy the same post after a gap of 4 years (2 terms of 2 years each).
The Mumbai Cricket Association does not have a system of individual membership. Rather it has 350 ordinary members and 25 Associate members which are affiliated to the Association. Only ordinary members are eligible to vote during elections. If any ordinary member is found to be inactive in terms of cricket activity for more than 3 years the Club to which he/she belongs is demoted as an Associate member and if the club is still inactive for 3 years it automatically loses its membership.
Currently the association is headed by Mr. Ravi Savant who has 22 years with the Mumbai Cricket Association during which he held the positions of Hon. Vice President and Hon. Treasurer before being elected as the interim President of the Mumbai Cricket Association. He has also been a member of the Finance Committee and Chairman of the Umpires Committee with the BCCI in the past. He was elected as an interim President after the demise of ex-President Vilasrao Deshmukh who was Minister of Science and Technology and Minister of Earth Sciences.
Various cricket club are associated with MCA, including the National Cricket Club, Dadar Parsi Zorastrian, Dadar Union etc. Police Gymkhana, Shivaji Park Gymkhana, Hindu Gymkhana, Parsi Gymkhana, and Islam Gymkhana.
Some of the important tournaments of MCA include the Dr H D Kanga League, Police Shield, Purshottam Shield, Cosmopolitan Shield, Summer Vacation Shield, Harris shield, and Gile shield.
Recently, the Association restructured its tournament, at the initiative of Ravi Savant and since 2013-14 only league format cricket is played but the all the names of the shields are retained and the shields are given to champions of different divisions in league. This has given ample opportunities to young players and their performances are comparable as the players are competing with the same level of teams. Also the league format ensures that the losing teams get repeated appearances on the field, allowing selectors to watch players in next the match, which was the difficult in the knock out format. The restructuring has made it easy to draw the cricket calendar in advance as the team names are certain, so grounds can be booked in advance. Since all over the world, cricket is played on covered wickets, the Kanga League, which was played in the monsoons has lost its significance and utility. Further, it also was necessary to give proper rest to the grounds and time for preparation of the pitches for the season which lasts almost eight months in Mumbai.
MCA Elite league tournament contains 14 teams in each division and there are 7 divisions. In the plate league there are 10 divisions consisting of 13 teams each. There are 13 champions from each group who play knock out games and four top teams go into elite league and at the same time last 4 teams from Elite group demoted to Plate group. For results see MCA web site. The Times Shield was run over 80 years. But Ravi Savant with his efforts made Times Shield as Sponsored Tournament by making Times Group to sponsor the same after 80 years.
Domestic Cricket
- Dr HD Kanga Memorial Cricket League
- Harris and Giles Shield inter-school tournaments
- Times shield office tournaments.
The Managing Committee
The Managing Committee of the Association consists of
- One President - By election (biannually)
- Two Vice Presidents - By election (biannually)
- One Hon. Treasurer - By election (biannually)
- Two Jt. Hon. Secretaries - By election (biannually)
- Nine Managing Committee members - By election (biannually)
- Five Gymkhana Representatives - by virtue of their status as the founder members
- Two Co-opted members - by virtue of their status as the founder members
- Total of 22 members.
The Jt. Hon. Secretaries look after the day-to-day working of the Association. The Managing Committee appoints various Sub Committees for smooth functioning of the Association, however the following Sub Committees are the important ones which run the cricket show.
- 1. Dr. H.D. Kanga Memorial Cricket League Sub Committee
- 2. Tournament Sub Committee
- 3. Umpires Sub Committee
- 4. Registration of players Sub Committee
- 5. Maidan Sub Committee
- 6. Selection Committees-
- Senior Selection Committee for Ranji Trophy
- Under-19 & MCA Colts Selection Committee
- Junior Selection Committee
- 7. Coaching Sub Committee
Each of the Sub Committee has a member of the Managing Committee as its Hon. Secretary
See also
- Mumbai cricket team
- Prithvi Shaw - Indian Highest Cricket Scorer (546 runs)
- Pranav Dhanawade [2]- first-ever cricketer to cross 1000-run mark. (1009 in 323 balls)