By Admin 
Former Indian fast bowler Venkatesh Prasad was elected the new president of Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) on Sunday. Prasad, former vice president of this association, defeated experienced sports administrator KN Shant Kumar by 749-558. A total of 1307 members voted in these elections.
Prasad will now face the challenge of bringing back top-level cricket in the state, which was marginalized after the stampede near the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on June 4. In this, 11 fans of Royal Challengers Bangalore were killed.
Prasad and Shanth Kumar, director of The Printers (Mysore) Pvt Ltd and one of the directors of the PTI board, both pledged to take necessary steps to revive cricket in the state. This was the main election issue of their respective panels.
Former Indian batsman Sujit Somasundar defeated D. Vinod Shivappa by 719-588 in the election for the post of Vice President. Somasundar had recently resigned from the post of education head of BCCI ‘Centre of Excellence’ to contest the KSCA elections.
BN Madhukar has become the new treasurer of KSCA by defeating MS Vinay by 736-571. Veteran administrator Santosh Menon returned to the association as the new secretary by defeating ES Jayaram 675-632.
After 11 fans died and many were injured in the stampede near M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Jayaram had resigned from the post of KSCA secretary, taking moral responsibility for this tragic incident.
The Prasad-led panel had the support of former Indian players like Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath. This panel captured all the important posts except the Joint Secretary.
These elections were held from 10 am to 5 pm. In the camp supported by Brijesh Patel, BK Ravi won for the post of Joint Secretary by defeating AV Shashidhar by a margin of 669-638.
Former women cricketer Kalpana Venkatachar (764) and former Karnataka wicketkeeper batsman Avinash Vaidya (691), who contested from Prasad’s panel, were selected as members from the Bengaluru region along with Ashish Amarlal (703).
Namita