Hello everyone, welcome to another edition of Cricket Huddle’s premier podcast show, State of Cricket. Today, we tackle the issue of BCCI selectors. Given the unprecedented events that happened a few days ago, we are truly wondering whether the BCCI selectors hold a true job or if they are just puppets to a higher power. This seems like the first time in cricket history that something like this happened, and it is almost unheard of. Let’s discuss more about the selectors so maybe we can try to make sense of what happened.

The main topics we will talk about are: roles and responsibilities, powers, the decision-making process, and the repercussions. Typically, a selector’s job is to choose players to represent a particular team in a match or series, as is their administrative duty (here is some more information about India’s selectors specifically). On November 19th, BCCI listed eight “main job duties” as well as eligibility criteria. There has been a lot of criticism against different selector groups in the past, including this one. Usually, the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) would’ve been in charge of reviewing the selectors’ performance, but there wasn’t one in place at the moment. It seems like the incoming new BCCI President, Roger Binny, would rather have his own people in place in the team and various committees. He gave the current regime a chance but was dissatisfied with the performance, hence the sacking of the current selectors and possibly a revamp with the Indian team coming soon.

Among other things discussed, we looked at what the English team did, as in having split coaching and split captaincy. We looked at and compared different selection committees (from Dilip Vengsarkar’s to Sandeep Patil’s). There were talks of certain players who could get a look in the national team selection again, such as Prithvi Shaw, Ishan Kishan, and Sanju Samson, and certain guys who could miss out on further chances like Lokesh Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja (possibly). Whoever the captains will be when picked by the new committee, the vice-captaincy is something that also needs to be properly looked into. Especially more so after the debacles with Rahul (limited-overs) and Ajinkya Rahane (Test). Heck, maybe we don’t even need one! There is a definite disconnect between team management and the selection committee, and that needs to be fixed so both can be on the same board.

The guys said something I wholeheartedly agree with: we do need another selector just solely focused on the IPL/T20 format of the game, someone who doesn’t need to have a first-class or ODI/50-over background. We even threw in some names as to who we’d like to see as the Chairman of Indian national team selectors someday. Here’s who the guys added in: Virender Sehwag (North Zone), MS Dhoni (East Zone), and Ajay Jadeja (North Zone). Another practical selection would be Ajit Agarkar (West Zone), someone I can see in the mix as well. Throwing my hat into the ring, I too would personally like to see Dhoni (East Zone) the most, thus making him my Chairman of Selectors. Parthiv Patel (West Zone) already said that it would be an honor for him to get the position in the future, but he is currently ineligible. He’d be a nice selection as well. To round things out, I believe Sehwag (North Zone) was a good selection by the guys, and I would add Dinesh Karthik (South Zone) when he retires and Suresh Raina (Central Zone) when he is eligible.

If you are interested in the rest of our topics, please check out the links below: