A margin of just one vote at the Singapore Cricket Association's (SCA) annual general meeting yesterday evening ended Imran Hamid's 10-year tenure as its president.

The 58-year-old lawyer was beaten 12-11 in the election at its office at Kallang by his deputy president Mahmood Gaznavi.

The 23 voters were the SCA's three honorary life members, seven executive committee members and the 13 clubs representing corporate and club leagues.

Said Mahmood: "I feel that I am taking on a greater responsibility. There is now a greater weight on my shoulders and I hope to be able to discharge it with assistance from the members of my new committee."

Imran could not be reached for comment.

Suresh Kalpathy (deputy president) and Harish Dongre (secretary) returned to office unopposed, while Swamirajan Sakthidaran and Krishna Baidya (vice-presidents), Balasubramaniam Sivasankaran (treasurer) and Manesh Muraleedharan (individual member representative) won their respective elections.

Although Mahmood stood for the election as he wanted to raise the standard of local cricket, the lawyer, who said his new team "is raring to positively contribute", credited the outgoing committee for their work.

He said: "We cannot forget that each member of the old committee has given yeoman service (to SCA).

"I intend to build on what is existing by improving certain areas that can be improved."

One of the first things on Mahmood's to-do list is to engage the community to improve the standard of local cricket.

The 53-year-old said: "We have to institutionalise the approach of developing youths and enticing young players to the sport.

"Hopefully, we can hold them to the sport and increase the base numbers of players."