If Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar can retire, why not Sharad Pawar: Uddhav Thackeray

The run up to June 17 Mumbai Cricket Association elections only got hotter when Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray fired a fresh salvo asking the association president Sharad Pawar to hang up his boots.

In his address to MCA voters in the Cricket First meeting, Thackeray said if cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar can retire, why not Pawar.

"Politics and cricket should be kept separate. That is the advice given to us. The politicians themselves are making a mockery of the game. Sachin and Gavaskar retired, but this man, who is the president of the Mumbai Cricket Association has not retired. If you look at the score, he has scored nothing but 0," he said, sending the gathering into laughter.

Thackeray said that Mumbai cricket's standard has only gone down. "There was a time when Mumbai players play Ranji Trophy in Brabourne Stadium, we would buy tickets to watch them. We would also go and watch Kanga League games. The Mumbai team was so strong that the Indian team was strong. If we see, they have finished the game," Thackeray said referring to the Pawar-Mahaddalkar group whose members are in majority in the present regime.

The Shiv Sena president also replied to the critics who said that his party has joined hands with Congress (Cricket First's presidential candidate Vijay Patil's father DY Patil is a Congressman). "They are saying that Shiv Sena people are sitting with Congress people, but what they are talking? You can see who the BJP men are supporting (referring to Pawar, chief of National Congress Party). I have very old relations with Vijay Patil," he said.

Thackeray said that the MCA has not provided basic facilities. "We have 350 clubs, but do we have wickets for these clubs? Our only agenda is to have grounds where there are no grounds. There were no toilet facilities when Aditya (Thackeray, his son) played. We are going to provide the same. These problems should not be there in the future. We are looking to find the next Sachin in these players but we have to focus on the facilities first," he said.

He also targeted the MCA clubs and gymkhanas. "If you look at it, MCA has set up a market as far as club memberships are concerned. They are giving the memberships to anyone. You have an indoor facility but can a common man use it?

"They had a plan to build the same in Thane, but could not do the same because we did not let them," said Thackeray, whose party is in power in the municipality.