Insiders sure of national selectors being retained at the the upcoming Indian cricket board AGM
Insiders sure of national selectors being retained at the the upcoming Indian cricket board AGM
The five-man selection panel headed by Krishnamachari Srikkanthu00a0 looks set to be retained when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) top bosses meet at the Cricket Centre for the Annual General Meeting on September 19-20.
Happy for now: K Srikkanth (centre) flanked by Virender Sehwag
(left) and Sachin Tendulkar. Suresh KK
Going by Board sources, many affiliates were not in favour of retaining the selectors, but they had to give in after president-elect N Srinivasan put in a word vouching for the current set of selectors. North Zone though will have a new selector in Vikram Rathore as Yashpal Sharma has finished his term. The other four -- Srikkanth (South Zone), Hirwani (Central Zone), Surendra Bhave (West Zone) and Raja Venkat (East) may be given extensions.
There have been a lot of deliberations on East Zone representative Venkat, who is known for his anti-Jagmohan Dalmiya stance all these years. In fact, he was the only national selector from East who neither had his zone's backing for the last three years nor he was in the selection panel of the state association -- Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB).
When Dalmiya was at war with the BCCI mandarins just after Sharad Pawar-led faction defeated him hands down in 2005, Venkat was chosen to represent East by virtue of his proximity to the then anti-Dalmiya faction. His name was proposed by an official who was not a Dalmiya supporter.
No such step
It was expected that Dalmiya would put his foot down with regards to Venkat's extension, but it is learnt that he won't. "Mr Dalmiya won't take any such step or bargain hard after having staged a comeback following a long battle," a source told Mid DAY yesterday.
Also, after BCCI's gesture of awarding three international matches (Test, ODI and T20) to Eden Gardens as a compensation for missing out on the murky India-England World Cup fixture, Dalmiya won't do anything to upset the equation once again.
"As a result, East will get a lot of importance in the meeting and the board won't have any issue with Chitrak Mitra's selection as vice-president," the source pointed out. As of now, East is expected to get two key posts in the 2011-2012 BCCI administration. With Ranjib Biswal tipped to become secretary, Mitra will replace Arindam Ganguly (Tripura) as vice-president.
As far as the selector's slot is concerned, Dalmiya is expected keep mum on Venkat's issue. "We will not raise our voice against Venkat. If BCCI wants to retain them, it will be an unanimous decision," a CAB official revealed.
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