Sharad Pawar likely to step down as MCA president

Pawar does not qualify to continue as per the Lodha Committee recommendations, which say cricket administrators should not be over 70 and must not serve two consecutive terms. The MCA has called an urgent managing committee meeting on Saturday where the official agenda is to discuss the Supreme Court’s recent observations, which charged the BCCI president of perjury for lying under oath and trying to obstruct the reforms. But the word going around is that Pawar could announce his decision.

Pawar, according to sources, has decided to step aside as he does not want to be in the cross hairs of the SC. If Pawar decides to step down it may not be a surprise for the MCA members as he had indicated on more than one occasion – the latest being on Friday – that he would prefer to fall in line with the reforms rather than try and fight the inevitable.

While addressing the 89th AGM of the (FICCI) on Friday, Pawar said, “While I am closely associated with cricket, the matter is in the Supreme court. The Court is now going to decide how cricket will be organised. Till yesterday, they were guiding how to run the country. Now, they are also guiding the sports organisation.” Without elaborating further on the issue, he said, “I don’t want to say anything about that. I don’t want to face contempt of court.” Pawar had expressed a similar opinion in a managing committee meeting in July.