Former Indian cricketer Venkatesh Prasad elected President, Santosh Menon Secretary

Bengaluru: ‘Team Game Changers,’ led by former Indian cricketer Venkatesh Prasad, swept the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) Polls held here yesterday.

The team, led by Prasad, won a majority of 11 seats of the total 16 seats stamping their authority on KSCA.  Venkatesh Prasad, contesting for President’s post, defeated K.N. Shanth Kumar, Director, The Printers (Mysore) Pvt. Limited, by a margin of 161 votes. While Prasad polled a total of 749 votes, Shanth Kumar secured 588 votes.

Backed by Indian cricketing greats Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath, Prasad’s team powered through the major posts. Former international cricketer Sujith Somasundar was elected as the Vice-President with 719 votes against D. Vinod Sivappa’s 588 votes. Santosh Menon clinched the Secretary’s position with 672 votes, narrowly outpacing E.S Jairam, who secured 632 votes. B.N. Madhukar claimed the Treasurer’s post convincingly with 736 votes to M.S. Vinay’s 571 votes.

The lone consolation for the Shanth Kumar camp came in the Joint Secretary category, where B.K. Ravi edged out A.V. Shashidhara narrowly with 669 votes to 638 votes.

Among life members, V.M. Manjunath (690 votes) and Sailesh N. Poll (618 votes) were elected to the Managing Committee. From Bengaluru Zone, former cricketers Kalpana Venkatachar (764 votes), Avinash Vaidya (691 votes) and Aashish Amarlall (703 votes) secured their places.

Among the keenly contested polls from six zones, Team Game Changers won two out of six zones.

While P. Srinivas Prasad was elected from Mysuru Zone with 746 votes defeating R.K. Hari Krishna Kumar (561 votes) and C.R. Harish from Tumakuru Zone with 734 votes defeating N. Ashoka (573 votes).

Team Brijesh Patel won other four seats which included Shivamogga Zone, where D.S. Arun who secured 722 votes defeated Nagendra K. Pandit (585 votes), Dharwad Zone, where Veeranna S. Savadi (825 votes) defeated Ahmed Raza A. Kittur (482 votes), Raichur Zone, where Kushal Patil Gadgi (704 votes) defeated Parthasarathi Kanakavidu (603 votes) and Shekar L. Shetty was elected unopposed from Mangaluru Zone.