In an unprecedented move, the BCCI has axed the senior men’s selection panel headed by former India fast bowler Chetan Sharma. The board sent out a media release on Friday evening inviting fresh applications for the posts of five national selectors, setting the deadline for applications as November 28.
This is the first major decision taken by the BCCI administration led by former India all-rounder Roger Binny, who was elected unopposed as the board chairman in October.
ESPNcricinfo has learned that the four national selectors Sunil Joshi, Harvinder Singh, Debasis Mohanty and Sharma, who are currently watching the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy matches across India, have not received any information from the BCCI regarding the development.
While no specific details were given in the media report – there was no mention of the selection panel being dropped – which will exit at the group stage in 2021 – the BCCI may have taken the move as part of an early review of India’s performance in successive T20 World Cups. And a semi-final defeat in 2022.
The Sharma-led selection panel has been reduced to four members from late 2021, after former Mumbai and India pacer Abey Kuruvilla, completes the maximum five-year term. When Kuruvilla moved to the post of BCCI General Manager (Cricket Development), the selection panel did not replace him.
In October, in the midst of the 2022 T20 World Cup, the selectors announced the Indian squads for the limited-overs series in New Zealand, which is now underway, but also for the tour of Bangladesh in December. This raised eyebrows as it was an unusual move for the selectors to announce squads for two separate tours at the same time.
Apart from Mohanty, who is nearing the end of his term (he was also a national junior selector), the remaining three selectors served only two years – half of their four-year tenure.
Technically, this will allow them to reapply for examiner posts. The eligibility criteria for applicants is that they should have played at least seven Test matches or 30 First-Class matches or 10 ODIs and 20 First-Class matches. They must have retired from the sport at least five years previously; And they cannot have already served five years as a member of any of BCCI’s Cricket Committees.
