Chetan Sharma, a former pacer from India, was appointed chairman of the senior national team panel by BCCI’s Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) on Thursday, which also elected Abey Kuruvilla from Mumbai and Debasis Mohanty from Odisha to the five-member squad. . The new panel was formed on the sidelines of the Board’s 89th Annual General Meeting (AGM) here, with Sharma beating Maninder Singh and Vijay Dahiya from the north. “Indeed, it is my privilege to have the opportunity to serve Indian cricket once again. I am a man of few words and my action will speak louder than words,” Sharma, who has a five-field tour at Lord’s in a test match, he told PTI.
“I can only thank the BCCI for this opportunity,” added the 54-year-old. Former mid-pace runner Kuruvilla, who was endorsed by the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) bigwigs, was preferred over a more decorated Ajit Agarkar from the west side.
Mohanty, a former India closer from Odisha, has served as the junior national coach for the past two years and will remain on the committee for just a couple more years.
The selection panel also includes former India players Sunil Joshi (south zone) and Harvinder Singh (middle zone).
“The committee further recommended Chetan Sharma for the position of chair of the senior men’s selection committee based on seniority (total number of test matches),” BCCI Secretary Jay Shah said in a press release.
“The CAC will review the candidates after a period of one year and make recommendations to the BCCI,” Shah added.
According to the BCCI constitution, the candidate with the highest number of test limits becomes the primary selector. Sharma represented India in 23 events and 65 ODIs during an 11-year international career, the climax of which was his hat-trick at the 1987 World Cup.
At the age of 16, Sharma began playing first-class cricket for Haryana and made his Test debut at age 18, a year after making his ODI debut against the West Indies in December 1983.
The main deliberation of the day was to secure safe passage for Kuruvilla, whose cricket achievements were no match for Agarkar, who was the only candidate with more than 200 international appearances among the contenders.
“Agarkar never had the support of the Mumbai Cricket Association. There were allegations that he did not watch matches as Mumbai head coach. The MCA insisted that Abey is their man,” a senior BCCI source told PTI.
“Abey had the backing of really influential people in the Mumbai cricket fraternity and he played his cards very well. There was no way Ajit, despite his cricket history, would have surpassed Abey,” he added.
Some of the candidates are known to have been asked questions related to the Indian cricket roadmap and also hypothetical questions about the divided captaincy.
While for Joshi, who remained the selector chair since his appointment to the post in March, after which cricket activities came to a standstill due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he was always in the cards.
“Joshi was appointed chairman on the premise that someone else will take over once all the panel members have changed,” he said.
Promoted
The first meeting of the new selection committee will be held to choose the team for the full-blown home series against England.
The CAC led by Madan Lal also includes RP Singh and Sulakshana Nai.
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