The former Indian cricketer Ajit Agarkar has been appointed as the new chairman of the national selection committee of men’s team and this is certainly a step in the right direction as the post was vacant since February. The last chief selector Chetan Sharma’s exit was a little controversial due to the sting operation in which he revealed some sensitive information regarding the men’s cricket.
Ajit Agarkar is a famous name in the Indian cricketing circles and he has a huge experience of representing the country in 26 test matches, 191 ODIs and 4 T20Is and he was also a part of the team which won 2007 T20 World Cup. The record of scoring the fastest fifty by an Indian is in the name of Ajit Agarkar and he also holds the record of taking the fastest 50 ODI wickets by an Indian.
Usually, the five-member selection committee has a member each from the five zones but this time something different has happened as Ajit Agarkar who is from West zone will be heading the committee which consists of SS Das (East zone), Subroto Banerjee (Central zone), S Sharath (South zone) and Salil Ankola (West zone). If you noticed, Ajit and Salil both are from West zone and there is no one from the North zone and the big question is whether the BCCI has broken an old rule in order to make Ajit Agarkar the chairman of the selection committee.
Well, it was an old practice of appointing one person from each zone and if we go by this practice, then someone from North zone should have replaced Chetan Sharma (North zone) but this time no high profile candidate from North zone applied for the post and the BCCI was left with no choice other than to appoint Ajit Agarkar. Though the conventional practice was not followed yet no rule was broken either and if you have observed the eligibility criteria set by the BCCI for applying for this post was that the person should have played – minimum 7 test matches & 30 first class matches or minimum 10 ODIs & 20 first class matches and then he should have retired minimum 5 years ago.
There was nothing written in the advertisement about the zone which means that the BCCI hasn’t broken any rule.
Ajit Agarkar’s first task will be to select the team for playing 5 T20Is in West Indies as the teams for playing 2 test matches and 3 ODIs have already been selected earlier.
We wish Ajit Agarkar all the best for his new responsibility!