Ajit Agarkar was formally named the chairman of selectors for the Indian men’s team by the BCCI. The position has been vacant since February this year when Chetan Sharma resigned following his sensational, shocking sting operation by an Indian news network wherein Chetan revealed inside details of the BCCI and Indian players.
It has been reported that Ajit Agarkar was the only candidate who was interviewed by BCCI’s Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) which comprised Sulakshana Naik, Ashok Malhotra, and Jatin Paranjape. BCCI had been keen to rope in Agarkar to replace Chetan Sharma and the CAC’s decision was unanimous.
The 45-year-old Agarkar will join the selection committee which already included Shiv Sunder Das, Salil Ankola, Subroto Banerjee, and S Sharath. Since Agarkar has played more international cricket than the other four – he played 26 Tests, 191 ODIs, and 4 T20Is – he was automatically elevated to the chief selector’s role.
Did BCCI break their Zone-based rule for Ajit Agarkar?
Ajit Agarkar‘s appointment as the chief selector has received a great welcome from fans and experts alike. Another move that has been welcomed by experts and journalists is that the BCCI has moved away from their long-standing tradition of having its 5-member selection committee all from different zones.
Mumbai’s Ajit Agarkar is from West Zone and his appointment means the 5-member selection panel has two members from the West Zone – Agarkar and Salil Ankola. The others are Subroto Banerjee (Central Zone), S Sharath (South Zone), and SS Das (East Zone). This means, there will be no selector from the North Zone.
“In the BCCI constitution, drafted as per the RM Lodha-committee recommendations, there is no mention of selectors being appointed on a zonal basis; just that the five of them should have been retired for at least five years and played a certain number of matches. While the BCCI has followed an unwritten rule of picking a selector from each of the five zones traditionally, the advertisement for the role never specified it was looking for a candidate from a specific zone,” ESPNcricinfo said in its article.
Chetan Sharma was from North Zone. But now, no other high-profile ex-cricketer from North Zone applied for the chief selector’s post.
For years, the BCCI had an unwritten, non-official rule where they had 5 selectors from different zones. However, it is not a certain or official rule.
So, no, the BCCI didn’t break any rule for Ajit Agarkar as it was only an unwritten convention that the board had been following of picking 5 selectors from different zones.
