Agashe to challenge BCCI election

D C Agashe, chairman of the Maharashtra Cricket Association, has decided to move the courts, challenging Ranbir Singh Mahendra's election as the new president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Agashe is returning to Mumbai by the afternoon flight to consult his lawyers.

"I am going to challenge the election because it was illegal," he said. "I have not decided whether to move the Mumbai high court or the Chennai high court where the original petitions (against the BCCI election) were filed."

He accused outgoing BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya for hatching a conspiracy against the Maharashtra Cricket Association with the sole aim of preventing Mumbai Cricket Association President Sharad Pawar from becoming the BCCI president.

"Great injustice has been done to the Maharashtra Cricket Association by Dalmiya by denying us the right to represent our Association at the BCCI Annual General Meeting," Agashe said.

"Even the rival faction was not allowed to vote. I had the Association's mandate to represent it at the meeting. When objections were raised in the working committee meetings earlier the same Dalmiya had overruled the objections and allowed me to participate," he said. "Now he knew how crucial one vote could be and hence he disqualified us. I am going to challenge this illegal disqualification in a court of law."

Agashe admitted there was a dispute over management of the Maharashtra Cricket Association but said the Association functioned normally with two observers -- B G Deshmukh, the former Cabinet secretary, and M N Singh, Mumbai's former police commissioner -- overseeing the Association's functioning.