Former India pacer Ajit Agarkar was named the new 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 learned that Agarkar was the only candidate who was interviewed by BCCI’s Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) which comprised Sulakshana Naik, Ashok Malhotra, and Jatin Paranjape.
The 45-year-old Agarkar will join the selection committee which already included Shiv Sunder Das, Salil Ankola, Subroto Banerjee and S Sharath, and since Agarkar has played more international cricket than the other four – he played 26 Tests, 191 ODIs and 4 T20I – he will automatically be elevated to the chief selector’s role.
Did Sachin Tendulkar talk Ajit Agarkar into taking chief selector’s position?
However, Ajit Agarkar was initially reluctant to take up the job of the chief selector because the pay was less. The salary for BCCI’s chief selector was INR 1 crore. If he took up this role with the BCCI, Agarkar would have to leave commentary duties and had already left Delhi Capitals as their assistant coach. Agarkar would have made more money with commentary and as Delhi Capitals’ coach than he would as the BCCI chief selector.
For this, there were two big steps taken. First, the BCCI has reportedly increased the salary of chief selector from INR 1 crore to INR 3 crore. And other, as reported by Cricbuzz, a former Indian legend was asked to coax Ajit Agarkar into taking this role.
Agarkar has previously been the head of the selection committee for Mumbai cricket. And given that he’s a big name in Indian cricket, with his experience which also included playing T20 matches – he was part of India’s 2007 T20 World Cup winning team and also featured in the IPL for a few years – the BCCI wanted Agarkar dearly.
Cricbuzz has reported that “Agarkar was persuaded to take up the role by a cricketing legend”, This legend could be the great Sachin Tendulkar because both hail from Mumbai and have known each other for a long time. However, it cannot be confirmed yet whether it was Sachin Tendulkar or someone else who talked to Agarkar.
