Two Mumbai fast bowlers, two stints

Fast bowlers Ramakant Desai and Ajit Agarkar. Pic/Mid-day archives

From all indications, India will soon have a new chief selector, with Ajit Agarkar on the verge of ending his three-year stint. The Indian cricket history book, as it were, will have another addition to its large "section" on chairmen of selection committees.

Agarkar has copped some flak amid talk that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma - both of whom have retired from Test and T20 cricket - do not figure in his plans for the 2027 World Cup in southern Africa. Agarkar is as articulate as they come and should be allowed, even if it makes his employers uncomfortable, to clear the air in the media.

It must be remembered that Agarkar spent a fair amount of time as a cricket pundit, and he will understand the need for some clarity. But the BCCI is known to shy away from putting the chairman of selectors in front of the media to speak on critical issues.

There was a time when chief selectors were expected to face the media after every selection committee meeting for a series or tour, no matter how comfortable or uneasy the chairman might have been while answering probing questions. Ramakant Desai was the first chairman of selectors I interacted with, and the last Mumbai fast bowler to hold the post before Agarkar was appointed in 2023.

Desai's nervousness while speaking to the media was palpable. It was not a pleasant sight. While we in the media wanted answers, the realisation that a chairman had been appointed to use his knowledge and vast playing experience to select teams - not to impress everyone with his command of the spoken word - was sometimes lost.

Desai replaced Gundappa Vish-wanath in the second half of 1996 and began facing the heat when India lost three consecutive matches to South Africa in the Titan Cup. India won the last two games of the triangular tournament - the penultimate match against Australia in Mohali and the final against South Africa in Mumbai - which was quite unexpected.

Away Test defeats against the West Indies and South Africa added to Desai's stress, as did some disappointing performances in one-day cricket. Those results eventually contributed to Sachin Tendulkar losing the captaincy before the 1998 home Test series against Australia.

I remember Desai having to field questions after the Board President's XI team was announced to play Australia, following Mumbai's victory over the tourists at the Brabourne Stadium in February 1998. He could not continue as chairman of selectors as India began its three-Test series against Australia in Chennai. Kishan Rungta, the Central Zone selector, took over and proved to be adept at handling the media and explaining selection decisions convincingly.

Seasoned journalists were tackled with aplomb at press conferences. I remember him being asked why his selection committee had not picked a particular bowler. His response centred on the fact that the bowler's own state selectors had dropped him only recently - so how could one expect the national selectors to pick him?

I got on the phone with Desai's son, Amod, on Tuesday evening to find out how his father, nicknamed Tiny and already a heart patient at the time, had been in the days leading up to a selection meeting and press conference.

Amod recalled his father spending a great deal of time meticulously preparing for those meetings. All the former players mid-day spoke to around the time of Desai's death in 1998 brought up the fact that the pressure from the media had taken its toll on this "gentle and generous" man. That was how his neighbour and former Mumbai teammate Eknath Solkar described him. Several of them felt Desai should have given up the chief selector's post much earlier than he eventually did.

There were, of course, periods when India did well with Desai heading the committee. In 1997, India beat Pakistan 4-1 to win the Sahara Cup in Canada. Sachin Tendulkar's team were without regulars such as Javagal Srinath, Anil Kumble and Venkatesh Prasad, yet players like Abey Kuruvilla, Harvinder Singh, and Debasis Mohanty did a wonderful job for their captain. The top performer was Sourav Ganguly, who won four Man of the Match awards.

I remember visiting Desai at his Associated Cement Companies (ACC) office in Churchgate to seek his reaction to the triumph. Desai welcomed me warmly, happy to oblige a journalist who belonged to a tribe that was more accustomed to vilifying him. "At last, a win [overseas]," he said, adding that it had to be his best moment as chairman of selectors.

I wonder what Agarkar would rate as his finest moment as chief selector - the 2024 T20 World Cup triumph, the 2025 Champions Trophy victory or the 2026 T20 World Cup win?

Among his low points, would the 0-3 whitewash at the hands of New Zealand in 2024 be the sorest? Or the loss in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series after India had drawn first blood in Perth?

Hopefully, Agarkar will be in a position to tell us soon.

Postscript: Chief selectors cannot be fully credited or blamed for triumphs and disasters. Perhaps more important is whether their selectorial decisions prove effective even after their terms end.

mid-day's Editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance.
He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.