The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has finally announced the three-member Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) on Thursday (December 1) to pick Team India's new selectors. The three-member committee consists of Mr Ashok Malhotra, Mr Jatin Paranjape and Ms Sulakshana Naik. Malhotra has represented India in seven Tests and 20 ODIs and recently served as the President of the Indian Cricketers’ Association.
Paranjape had played 4 ODIs for India and was part of the former Senior Men’s Selection Committee that was helmed by MSK Prasad. The duo have taken the positions vacated by Madan Lal and RP Singh.
According to the BCCI constitution, ‘the selection committee needs to be selected by a three-member Cricket Advisory Committee.’ But the CAC has been without a chairman since October last year after Lal turned 70. In Lal’s absence, the other two members of the CAC - Singh and Naik - had conducted the interview of Rahul Dravid in November last year as the men’s head coach after Ravi Shastri’s term got over.
While Naik, continues to be a part of the three-member CAC, Singh has ended his term after taking up the role of a talent scout for IPL franchise Mumbai Indians.
The new CAC will now be in charge of selecting the new five-member panel of the All Inda Senior Selection Committee.
Earlier on Thursday, the former Team India's selection committee's chairman Chetan Sharma, who was sacked after Men in Blue's T20 World Cup 2022's ouster, has re-applied for the top selector post as Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) accelerates the process.
A source privy to the development confirmed to Sports Tak that Chetan Sharma and Harvinder Singh have applied for the position in committee as they have time left as per the rules.
After India's T20 World Cup elimination, where India’s journey ended in the semi-finals, the BCCI had decided not to extend the tenures of their selection committee. Fresh applications were invited and the BCCI is going to have a new panel in the coming weeks.
More than 60 applicants have applied for the post, including Sharma and Singh. The other two members of the erstwhile panel, Sunil Joshi and Debashish Mohanty haven’t re-applied. The BCCI hasn’t received applications from any ‘big’ names barring a few former cricketers who wish to become members of the five-member selection committee.
Interestingly, current junior selection committee chairman S Sharath too has applied for the post. The other prominent names include Venkatesh Prasad, Dodda Ganesh, Maninder Singh, Nikhil Chopra, Atul Wassan, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Nayan Mongia, SS Das, Salil Ankola, Sameer Dighe, Ajay Ratra, Gyanendra Pandey, Jacob Martin, Subroto Banerjee and Iqbal Siddiqui.
