Chennai/Thiruvananthapuram, March 2 (IANS): Newly elected vice president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), T.C. Mathew said on Monday he will use his position to work for the overall improvement of the sport in general and in Kerala.

"Even though I have been elected from the West Zone, I will always work for the overall improvement of cricket in Kerala and other places," a happy Mathew told the media in Chennai.

During the board's 85th annual general meeting (AGM) in Chennai on Monday, he got 16 votes of the 30 polled. Mathew, who was elected as one of the five vice presidents, came from the West Zone quota and he has always been a close aide of sidelined former BCCI president N. Srinivasan.

He outvoted former BCCI supremo and Maharshtra strongman Sharad Pawar's ally Ravi Sawant.

A lawyer by profession Mathew has come up the ladder in the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) of which he is the president. He was the treasurer of the KCA from 1997 to 2005 and from then till 2014 he was the secretary and since then he has been the president.