Mumbai has to become No. 1 again: Dilip Vengsarkar

You polled a whopping 195 votes to get elected as vice-president. Also, the Sharad Pawar-Bal Mahaddalkar group won 15 of the 17 seats. Did you expect such a rousing victory?
Yes, we did. However, we did not expect Ravi Savant, a strong candidate (for the post of joint secretary), to lose. His defeat was unfortunate.

What are your plans for Mumbai cricket?
We have chalked out a plan for the betterment of Mumbai cricket. We will appoint a Cricket Improvement Committee which will deliberate on a lot of issues in the coming weeks. We need to work on college cricket, school, office and club cricket. We need to see how to make these competitions meaningful and productive.

Some say the MCA should go back to the old format as far as the Kanga League is concerned. You are also a fan of the old format. Will we see the return of monsoon cricket?
One cannot comment on it at this stage. We will have the CIC which will discuss these issues and take it further.

Six cricketers were in the fray for Wednesday's elections. But only two (Pravin Amre being the other) won. Are you surprised?
The thing is that not many cricketers are (club) representatives. Very few of them contest elections. Apart from the office-bearer hopefuls (Lalchand Rajput for joint secretary and Abey Kuruvilla for vice-president), Deepak Jadhav, Sanjay Patil contested for managing committee berths. However, we will involve former cricketers who are connected with Mumbai cricket at the grassroots. Those who have got the time and passion for Mumbai cricket will be part of the CIC and their expertise and experience will help the game.

What do you think are the problems plaguing Mumbai cricket?
The thing is that we have an excellent structure as far as tournaments are concerned and we should make best use of it. I am glad the elections were held in the month of June. This will give us enough time to prepare for the BCCI tournaments beginning in October. We will appoint directors at the MCA academies, name the coaches for the various age groups, streamline the whole thing and make sure they are affective. We will appoint the best possible coaches to identify and nurture talent across age groups.

Mumbai's Ranji Trophy dominance is almost over. Is it a cause for concern? And how do you plan to ensure Mumbai become the powerhouse of Indian cricket all over again?
We need right kind of people, from coaches to selectors who have the vision and courage of conviction. It's very important to nurture talent, give players their break at the right time. The timing has to be precise. I will ensure that we groom the right talent and give them opportunities. Yes, other states have gone ahead of Mumbai, but we cannot sit and say that we, too, have to go ahead of them. These states were behind us, but they caught up. We have to go ahead and the next four months are very important for us. We want to make sure that all our age group teams are ready to take on any opposition.

You said about working at the grassroots. Can you elaborate?
Giles Shield and Harris Shield are two of our oldest school tournaments. There is a lot of talent in the suburbs — from Mulund to Dahisar and Dahanu to Panvel. My suggestion is to have a tournament between top teams from the suburbs and Mumbai. That can also be done at the college level too. I have been thinking about this for quite some time. Apart from that, we will be appoint talent spotters and get feedback from them.

How different do you think this tenure will be to your earlier ones?
Earlier, when I was vice president for eight years, we won the Ranji Trophy on five occasions. This, I believe, is quite an excellent record. However, I was away for four years. I have to start afresh. This tenure will be a challenging one. We will have to move as fast as possible on all fronts so that we take Mumbai cricket forward.