Vijay Patil group walks out of crucial MCA meeting

Members of the Cricket First panel - Vijay Patil, Abey Kuruvilla and Nadim Memon - walked out of the meeting halfway after there was an argument between the current vice-presidents Patil and Ravi Savant on who would chair the meeting.u00a0

A member of Patil's group said: "Rule 19 (a) of the MCA's constitution states that the senior vice-president can chair the meeting. Mr Patil has been in the post for three consecutive years. Savant was a treasurer before he was elected as interim president of the association. Mr Patil also got more votes than Savant in the last elections. So, he should have chaired the meeting."

Savant said: "Being the senior member of the committee, most of the members felt that I should chair the meeting. But Patil was of the opinion that he should chair it for getting maximum votes (in the election). As per the rule any member who is senior in that position should chair the meeting.

I was there in the post for eight years before being treasurer and then as president. So, majority felt I should chair the meeting. He (Patil) told the members that he will take legal help on this." u00a0Meanwhile, MCA's ‘grand' felicitation function of Sachin Tendulkar on November 11 where their Kandivli club house would be named after the batting maestro is likely to be a 45-minute affair.

Musical evening
"A musical evening has been organised where popular singers will give live performances. The programme will last for around 45-30 minutes as the players would then proceed towards the team hotel," a source said after yesterday's managing committee meeting. Names of singers Suresh Wadkar and Shaan did the rounds during the meeting.

As far as the in-stadia experience during the 200th Test match is concerned, it is likely to be on the lines of Kolkata's Eden Gardens, who will host Tendulkar's 199th Test.u00a0Ad and events guru Lokesh Sharma's presentation suggested preparing Tendulkar masks for the crowd and life-size cutouts of the batting legend throughout the stadium amongst other things. However, the source said Sharma's presentation would be finalised only on Tuesday.u00a0