Team India’s unexpected repercussion from the T20 World Cup in the semi-finals led BCCI to sack the entire four-member National Selection Committee led by Chetan Sharma on Friday. India’s failure to reach the finals was analysed by BCCI and removing the senior selection committee was the first step in resolving the issue.
With many selection calls falling out in the World Cup matches, BCCI was not happy with the committee and also with the head coach Rahul Dravid.
While the dismissed selectors Chetan Sharma, Sunil Joshi, Debashish Mohanty, and Harvinder Singh are edible to reapply for the position, they have decided to move on from the selection committee.
Another set of reports states that much before the World Cup, the board has begun planning to elect new selectors, the ones who have a better understanding of the short format. Also, during the World Cup itself, the committee asked to pick the teams for the upcoming New Zealand and Bangladesh series. It confirms that the plan was made before. A board official states that “The selectors knew it was coming”.
Chetan was a lonely figure during the T0 World Cup. He never traveled with the team and always keep distance from the head coach Rahul Dravid. No media has reported any serious conversation between the duo.
A senior national selector normally has got 4-years term that is subject to extension. Chetan (North zone), Harvinder Singh (Central Zone), Sunil Joshi (South Zone), and Debasish Mohanty (East Zone) have had the shortest time period as senior national selectors. After Sunil Joshy and Harvinder Singh were appointed on February 2020. After the AGM in January 2021 that Chetan took over as the Chairman of selectors with Mohanty and Kuruvila joining.
Many decisions regarding the playing squad like the rest and rotation policy for players in the World Cup had been drawn up by the head coach Rahul Dravid with the selectors. But many of those selection calls were falling flat and the board is not happy with that. The decision to go ahead with the same opening lineup of Rohit Sharma, K.L. Rahul, and Virat Kohli for all the matches, giving up on Shami, the rush to call back Bumrah to action, trusting Dinesh Karthik to perform well in the Australian pitches has all being discussed among the board. The blame is being given to the team management and the selectors.
Another reason that BCCI was unhappy with Chetan and his committee was they were not assertive when it comes to some important decisions. Also, not being able to set a settled squad, they allowed eight international captains in just one year. K. L. Rahul, who has been on rest for almost eight months from T20 cricket has been sent to almost every international match, but nothing has come out from him. There was no proper coordination with the team management to create a decisive set of players.
Chetan and his committee never rewarded the domestic or IPL players to pick specialists from them for the two World Cups. Under this committee, India has lost 2 T20 World Cups and they were a 10-wicket loss, which has never happened before.
It was during Chetan’s time that India failed to reach the knock-out stage in the 2021 World Cup. Also, India lost the World Test Championship final & Asia Cup 2022. A BCCI insider stated that India needs to win the T20 World Cup for Chetan to save his job.
Indian fans have welcomed the decision of BCCI and asking for more from the side. BCCI invited applications for the new set of selectors on Friday.
The clauses set for the selectors will continue the same. The person should be below 60 years old and have played at least 10 ODIs and 20 first-class matches, or 7 test matches or 30 first-class matches are expected. Another interesting job assigned to the new Chairman is picking captains for each format. This suggests that BCCI might be moving towards split captaincy. Hardik Pandya may be the new T20 captain for the side while Rohit Sharma continues to lead the side in ODIs and Test matches.
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