Mumbai, Jul 23 (IANS): Incumbent Secretary Ajinkya Naik was on Tuesday elected the youngest-ever President of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), replacing the late Amol Kale, who passed away in New York in June while on a trip to watch the T20 World Cup. Ajinkya Naik, just 37, got elected by beating Vice-President Sanjay Naik, who enjoyed the support of Mumbai BJP chief and BCCI Treasurer Ashish Shelar, by 107 votes in the election conducted on Tuesday. Ajinkya polled 221 votes to 114 by Sanjay in a one-sided contest.

"Heartiest Congratulations to Mr. Ajinkya Naik who has been elected as the President of the Mumbai Cricket Association in the MCA elections held today, the Mumbai Cricket Association said in a post on its official handle on X, formerly Twitter.

Ajinkya Naik's election was on expected lines after he had secured the "behind the scenes" support of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo and former MCA, BCCI and ICC President Sharad Pawar.

According to some claims, he also had the tacit support of Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, a colleague of Ashish Shelar in the BJP. MCA's deceased President Amol Kale was said to be quite close to Fadnavis as both hailed from Nagpur.

Ajinkya rode on Shelar's support to get elected as MCA Secretary but then shifted to the Pawar camp, resulting in his complicated relations with Sanjay Naik.

“It’s a win for Mumbai maidan and their club secretaries as I’m just one of them. I have been part of various committees for more than one decade. The result came as per my expectations,” Ajinkya said after his win.

Ajinkya had last week said that he would like to work to improve cricket infrastructure in the city and approach the corporates to create more job opportunities for cricketers.