Chetan Sharma was on Saturday re-appointed as the chairman of the senior selection committee, two months after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) disbanded the entire selection committee due to India’s semi-final exit in the T20 World Cup. Chetan’s new team, however, will have completely new faces. S S Sharath, the junior chairman of selectors for South Zone, will be promoted. Others in the committee include former East Zone fast bowler Subroto Banerjee, West Zone’s Salil Ankola and Central Zone’s Test opener Shiv Sunder Das.
Das had represented Vidarbha after playing for Odisha, so he was eligible to represent Central Zone even though he was a former player. A BCCI source defended Das’s decision to pick him from the central zone, saying, “Central and East are two zones that haven’t produced many deserving names.” So BCCI had to use the best option available. Das’s Vidarbha representation made him eligible from the central zone.
Apart from this, Ranadev Bose of Bengal is in the Junior Committee. He said, “Subroto had played for Bengal, but he played more cricket for then Bihar than for Bengal.” Chetan’s aide Harvinder Singh also reapplied, but was not considered after the interview. Secretary Jai Shah said in a release issued here, “The board had issued an advertisement for five posts of the selection committee on its official website on November 18, 2022, in response to which about 600 applications were received.”
“After due deliberation and careful scrutiny of the applications, the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) shortlisted 11 persons for personal interview. Based on the interview, the CSC has recommended the following candidates for the Men’s National Selection Committee.” It should be mentioned that both Das and Chetan played the same number of Tests, 23 each, but as against Chetan’s 65 ODIs Das has played only four ODIs. Chetan’s Test career started in 1984 while Das made his Test debut in 2000.
Coming to former Tamil Nadu captain Sharath, he has good experience of judging junior cricket players. He is the only player in this panel who has not played for India. The BCCI official said, “Sharat is brilliant in spotting talent. He has seen U-19 cricket from close quarters. He has a good understanding of the skills of the junior players. Banerjee had applied last time too but lost to Debashish Mohanty. Banerjee has been a reputed bowling coach and is also the personal coach of current Indian fast bowler Umesh Yadav. He was the bowling coach of Vidarbha’s Ranji Trophy winning team. As for Ankola, his experience of being the chairman of selectors of a big first-class team like Mumbai worked in his favour.
