Former India cricketers Pragyan Ojha and Rudra Pratap Singh are likely to become new members in the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) senior selection committee. BCCI had called for applicants for the position of two national selectors last month.
The Indian Express reported that the BCCI received a lukewarm response from well-known former international cricketers. Former India cricketer Praveen Kumar also applied for the national selectors' role. Apart from him, former Uttar Pradesh pacer Ashish Winston Zaidi and Himachal Pradesh’s Shakti Singh were the other candidates from Central Zone.
However, the BCCI had kept certain criteria to replace their two outgoing selectors, Subroto Banerjee (Central) and S Sharath (South). As per the Indian board, the applicant should have played a minimum of seven Test Matches, or 30 First-Class Matches, or 10 ODIs and 20 First-Class Matches. The interested person should have retired from cricket at least five years prior, and he must not have been a member of any cricket committee of the BCCI for a cumulative period of five years.
RP Singh, who was a part of MS Dhoni-led 2007 World Cup-winning team, has represented India in 14 Tests, 58 ODIs and 10 T20Is between 2005 and 2011. On the other hand, Pragyan Ojha was a part of India's Asia Cup 2010 winning squad and has represented India in 24 Tests, 18 ODIs and 6 T20Is between 2008 and 2013.
The Indian Express also reported that the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC)-comprising Ashok Malhotra, Jatin Paranjpe and Sulakshna Naik will be shortlisting the candidates for two posts in the senior selection committee, and they will be interviewing the duo. The new selectors are likely to take charge from October ahead of the Australia tour.