Mumbai Cricket Crisis: CIC's Tuesday meeting will seal selectors' fate

Mumbai chief selector Ajit Agarkar

As per the decision of the Special General Meeting on February 21, the ad-hoc committee of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) yesterday decided to call an urgent meeting of the Cricket Improvement Committee (CIC) on Tuesday to replace Mumbai's senior selection panel.

Last week, an amended motion was unanimously passed by 79 members during the SGM which directed the CIC to replace the senior selectors headed by Ajit Agarkar. Their main grievance was that the selectors did not watch local matches and as a result, several top performers missed out on being part of the Mumbai probables. The selectors, though, have rejected this claim to the MCA authorities.

"We will brief the CIC about the decision taken by the SGM. The SGM wants the CIC/ad-hoc committee to replace the senior selectors as they were appointed by the CIC," MCA joint secretary Dr Unmesh Khanvilkar told mid-day after yesterday's ad-hoc committee meeting. The senior selection committee, comprising Agarkar, Nilesh Kulkarni, Sunil More and Ravi Thakkar, have just two meetings left before the season ends. They are set to meet a day before the CIC meeting to pick the team for the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 where Mumbai have progressed to the knockouts. Their last meeting of the season would be to pick the U-23 team.

Besides the decision on Agarkar & Co, Raju Kulkarni's CIC will also have to decide on the fate of MCA academy's batting coach Kiran Powar, against whom there have been several complaints regarding his style of functioning. Powar and MCA academy head Nandan Phadnis have been allegedly at loggerheads.

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