BCCI Initiates Search for National Selector as Salil Ankola Set to be Replaced
Board to Fill Vacancy in Selection Committee, Following Standard Zonal Representation Norms
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which on Monday requested applications for the position of national selector, is scheduled to replace Salil Ankola on the committee.
Since Ankola and Ajit Agarkar, the chairman of the selection committee, are both from Mumbai's West Zone, it was inevitable that Ankola would be replaced. Since Chetan Sharma resigned in February 2023 over a sting operation, North Zone is not represented on the five-member panel. Agarkar became the new chairman in July of last year.
Although the BCCI constitution does not mandate that the selectors come from five different zones, the BCCI has always complied with this requirement for practical reasons, as per the recommendations of the Justice (retd) RM Lodha committee.
The other members of the committee are S. Sharath, Subroto Banerjee, and Shiv Sundar Das.
In January 2023, Ankola was designated as the national selector. He had served as Mumbai's chief selector before to that.
The BCCI ultimately made the decision to grant the North Zone associations' requests for their own selector after months of intense pressure.
As per the announcement, prospective applicants need to have engaged in 10 One-Day Internationals and 20 First-Class Matches, or they must have played seven Tests or thirty First-Class Games. It is important that the former player have been out of the game for a minimum of five years.
“No person who has been a member of any Cricket Committee (as defined in the rules and regulations of BCCI) for a total of 5 years shall be eligible to be a member of men’s selection committee,” the eligibility provision adds.
The application deadline is January 25.
For the past few months, there has been discussion that the BCCI will restructure the current panel in a number of places. However, it appears that the plan was abandoned after Team India's outstanding ODI World Cup performance.
With the exception of the T20 World Cup in June, the newly constituted committee will be in charge of selecting the team for the final three Test matches against England.
Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Press Time staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.
