A first in BCCI Polls: Azad releases 13-point manifesto for players' association elections

New Delhi : Pension, medical insurance cover and one-time ex-gratia payment for the recently-retired first-class players are some of the issues that former India player Kirti Azad wants to address if he wins players' representative elections at the Indian Cricketers' Association (ICA) polls on October 11.

Azad, who is locked in a three-way battle with former India players Anshuman Gaekwad and Dodda Ganesh for the ICA players' representative to the all-important Apex Council of the BCCI, has released a 13-point election manifesto.

The fourth candidate for the post is former Saurashtra and India A left-arm spinner Rakesh Dhruv. Dhruv is expected to get the backing of the strong Saurashtra and Gujarat lobby of players while Azad's strength will be the north India block.

Azad, a former Delhi captain and member of the 1983 World Cup winning Indian team, is confident that he can "make a difference" to the lives of many first-class cricketers of yesteryears, who are living in anonymity, with distress and lack financial security.

"Me along with Ashok Malhotra (set to be new ICA president), Surinder Khanna (players' representative at IPL Apex Council) are together as a group," Azad told PTI.