Mumbai Cricket Association press box to be named after Balasaheb Thackeray

It’s official. The Wankhede Stadium’s press box will be named after the late Balasaheb Thackeray. The Mumbai Cricket Association officials met his son and the party chief, Uddhav Thackeray, to get a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the family.

“President Ravi Sawant, Nadeem Memon and myself met Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday.

We agreed that the media box to the north will be named after Balasaheb. Uddhav was happy and willingly agreed,” MCA joint secretary Dr PV Shetty told dna.

It is also learnt that the MCA has passed a proposal to name its plush clubhouse in BKC after Sharad Pawar, union agriculture minister and former MCA and BCCI president. The club is likely to be called the MCA-Sharad Pawar Club House. The political heavyweight was instrumental in MCA having the state-of-the-art indoor academy at the Bandra-Kurla complex.

“Sharad Pawar has contributed a lot to Mumbai cricket and it was due to his efforts that we got the indoor academy,” an MCA official said.

Meanwhile, BCCI general manager for game development, Ratnakar Shetty, met MCA officials on Tuesday in connection with the inflammatory charges that he made at the association’s AGM recently. Shetty claimed that an MCA office bearer was involved in black-marketing tickets for the India-Pakistan T20 match in Ahmedabad on December 28.

MCA had taken offence to the charges and reportedly decided to impose a ban on its long-serving erstwhile official. He was given seven days to listen to his tape.

Dna understands that Shetty has bought more time since the IPL had engaged him. “As far as banning him is concerned, it’s media speculation now,” the MCA official said.