Indian cricket board have slapped an age restriction of 60 for former Indian players wanting to be in the new junior and senior selection committees
Dilip Vengsarkar, the finest chief selector in recent years
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If they had their way, the Indian cricket board would want to continue having administrators on the wrong side of 70 in their set-up.
On the other hand, they have slapped an age restriction of 60 for former players wanting to be in the new junior and senior selection committees.
This rules out the likes of Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohinder Amarnath and even a legend like Sunil Gavaskar, if at all he decides to become a selector after adorning roles of cricket manager, team consultant and the interim BCCI chief for Indian Premier League.
Deserving candidate
If Vengsarkar wants to have another go as national selector, he can't, because he has crossed 60.
Is the Board trying to say that 60-plus selectors are in no position to travel all over the country to watch matches?
The BCCI said on its website that selectors should be willing to undergo a medical examination. The same could be organised for 60-plus players as well.
Even Sanjay Jagdale, arguably the finest of all non-Test player senior selectors, cannot become a selector because he has no Test experience and he is 65 years old. It must be remembered that it was Jagdale who helped form the current selection committee whose term is approaching a satisfactory end.
A selector is an employee of the board, so while age restrictions for honorary officebearers are fine, an employee technically has to be the best available talent even if he is above 60.
Vengsarkar, who did a fine job as chairman of selectors after the disastrous 2007 World Cup in the West Indies, deserved another term.
It was he who appointed Mahendra Singh Dhoni as India's limited overs captain, a move which led to the 2007 World T20 triumph in South Africa and an unprecedented one-day triangular series triumph in Australia 2007-08 which came after a 1-2 loss in the Test series Down Under.
Amarnath episode
Amarnath was replaced in 2012, the year Sandeep Patil took over as chairman from K Srikkanth.
Reportedly, Amarnath had expressed the need for Dhoni to be replaced as Test captain after some disastrous overseas defeats.
Did he pay the price for being too vocal against an illustrious cricketer? Probably.
One would have liked to see the BCCI laying down other conditions as well – like ruling out fathers whose sons are first-class cricketers.
Agreed, the Board has set the criteria to ensure they are on the right side of the tracks in these times of reforms, but logic cannot be thrown out of the window in a clean-up
operation.
Of course, these recommendations can be shot down by the Justice RM Lodha panel because they have their own scheme which they would want to see implemented.
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