Former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad was elected unopposed as president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) after his opponent Shanth Kumar's application was declared invalid during the scrutiny of nominations on Monday.
An official announcement is expected to be made on Wednesday, November 26.
The Karnataka High Court had earlier ordered that the presidential election be conducted on December 7. The court also directed the KSCA that the election process should be carried out in adherence to the association’s bye-laws and the Supreme Court’s guidelines.
It is learnt that the nomination of Shanth Kumar, president of the DH and PV Sports Club and a representative of the Brijesh Patel faction, was rejected for defaulting on the club’s annual subscription for four years in violation of KSCA norms. His disqualification meant Prasad was the only eligible candidate in the fray.
Prasad had earlier said his panel would attempt to recreate the time between 2010-2013 when the Kumble-led administrators gave state cricket a massive fillip.
"That is when I was the vice-president, Anil Kumble was the president and Javagal Srinath was the secretary. Those are the only three years we never allowed anybody to take control or to drive this association from behind -- the backseat driving syndrome," he told PTI after filing his nomination.
"We didn't allow that to happen. And that's when cricket flourished, cricket infrastructure flourished. Now, it pains me to see the infrastructure, especially at the mofussil centres. We need to change it, and that will be our effort."
Prasad, who had served as KSCA vice-president from 2010 to 2013, will be returning to cricket administration after a 12-year break.
Other prominent names to contest from Prasad's panel are include former India batter Sujith Somasundar (vice-president), seasoned administrator Vinay Mruthynjaya (secretary), AV Shashidhar (joint secretary), Madhukar (treasurer) and former Karnataka cricketer Avinash Vaidya (institutional member from Bengaluru Zone).
The elections were declared after the Raghuram Bhatt-led dispensation's tenure ended on September 30.
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