Kapil Dev,Dilip Vengsarkar

Calcutta: The doping opera continues.

First, the athletes broke down on national television. Then, on Friday, even sacked coach Yuri Ogorodinik put on a truly weepy performance.

One isn’t sure just how much sympathy the athletes and the coach have got, though. Similarly, one isn’t sure how many have committed themselves to voting for either Dilip Vengsarkar or Vilasrao Deshmukh in the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA)’s July 15 elections.

The MCA electorate is 329-strong and both, vice-presidents at this point in time, are aspiring to be its next president.

Pravin Barve, a one-time MCA official, has also thrown his hat in the ring, but he has filed his nomination for multiple posts and isn’t being taken seriously.

While Vengsarkar is a former India captain and chief selector, Deshmukh is a Union minister, with the backing of colleague Sharad Pawar, outgoing president of the MCA.

Of course, it’s to be seen whether Deshmukh remains in the Manmohan Singh government after the cabinet reshuffle which is expected any time now.

Both Vengsarkar and Deshmukh have been wooing the voters passionately in what many see as a fight essentially between the Congress (Deshmukh’s party) and the Shiv Sena (which is supporting Vengsarkar).

It’s interesting that the Pawar group, which has put up candidates for all posts except that of the president, has fielded a BJP municipal councillor, Ashish Shelar, for one of the two posts of vice-president.

Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party and the BJP are daggers drawn in Maharashtra (at the Centre, too), but party lines have, obviously, got blurred in the lead-up to the MCA elections.

The buzz is that Pawar couldn’t say ‘no’ when a very senior leader of the BJP “requested” his backing for Shelar.

Nine have filed nominations for the vice-presidents posts. The candidates include the Pawar-supported Prof. Ratnakar Shetty and Vijay D. Patil of the D.Y. Patil Stadium fame, who is contesting as an independent.

The presence of heavyweights has raised the profile of the contest for those two posts.

Vengsarkar continues to exude confidence, but it's somewhat strange that nobody from among the Big 3 in Mumbai — neither Sunil Gavaskar, nor Ravi Shastri nor Ajit Wadekar — has either said anything publicly or released a statement backing him.

Wadekar’s silence, in particular, has raised eyebrows. After all, he’d been a candidate the last time that there was a contest for the president’s post. That was in January 2001, when he lost to Pawar.

“I don’t know why that’s so... I’m overseas... I can only speak for myself... I’m happy that Dilip is contesting... I have nothing against a politician or a businessman, but I’d rather have more sportsmen in positions of authority... I’d love to hear sport being discussed in the MCA board room or wherever, not politics or business,” Kapil Dev, India’s first captain to win the World Cup, told The Telegraph.

Speaking on Saturday afternoon, Kapil added: “I was very happy when Anil Kumble won (in Karnataka) last November and I’ll be as happy if Dilip wins... However, we’re talking of an election... So, let’s see.”

Candidates may withdraw by July 12.