Venkatesh Prasad elected as new KSCA president
Venkatesh Prasad, the former India pacer, has been elected as the new president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association following the elections on Sunday (December 7). Prasad, leading Team Game Changers, saw off competition from KN Shanth Kumar who was part of the team backed by Brijesh Patel, bagging 749 votes while Shanth Kumar got 558.
It was a near sweep of all the office bearer positions for the Prasad-led panel. Sujith Somasundar, the former batter who recently stepped down as Head of Cricket Education at the BCCI Centre of Excellence, was elected vice-president after contesting against D Vinod Sivappa, winning 719-588.
Former secretary Santosh Menon was back in the same post after seeing off competition from ES Jairam - getting 675 votes as against his opponent's 632 votes - while BN Madhukar (736 votes) got the better of MS Vinay (571) for the post of treasurer.
Only former umpire BK Ravi emerged victorious from Brijesh's camp, winning the joint secretary post after going up against AV Shashidara, winning 669-638.
Winners at the KSCA elections
Office Bearers
| Position | Name |
|---|---|
| President | Venkatesh Prasad |
| Vice President | Sujith Somasundar |
| Secretary | Santosh Menon |
| Joint Secretary | BK Ravi |
| Treasurer | BN Madhukar |
| Managing Committee Life Members | Managing Committee Institution Members |
|---|---|
| VM Manjunath | Kalpana Venkatachar |
| Sailesh Poll | Aashish Amarlall |
| Avinash Vaidya |
| Zones |
|---|
| Mysore - Srinivas Prasad |
| Shivamogga - DS Arun |
| Tumkur - CR Harish |
| Dharwad - Veerana Savidi |
| Raichur - Kushal Patil |
| Mangalore - Shekhar Shetty |
The Prasad-led panel, in its manifesto and earlier press meets, had stressed on working actively to return cricket to the Chinnaswamy stadium, where mainstream cricket hasn't been held since the stampede outside the stadium during Royal Challengers Bengaluru's title celebrations.
DK Shivakumar, the Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka and also a life member of the KSCA, had visited the stadium earlier in the day to cast his vote. In a chat with the media, he said: "Will not allow IPL matches to be shifted out of Chinnaswamy stadium. This is a question of Bengaluru and Karnataka's pride. We will ensure IPL matches are held here.
"I am a cricket fan. We will ensure that such incidents don't recur in the future and uphold the reputation of the stadium. We will also build a new cricket stadium as an alternative."
