CAC retains Chetan Sharma as chairman of India senior men’s selection committee (ld)

New Delhi, Jan 7 (IANS) The Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) comprising Sulakshana Naik, Ashok Malhotra, and Jatin Paranjape on Saturday recommended Chetan Sharma as Chairman of the India senior men’s selection committee.

An official statement from the BCCI said the CAC had shortlisted 11 individuals for personal interviews after receiving 600 applications for the five posts. Based on the interviews, the CAC has recommended Sharma, Shiv Sundar Das, Subroto Banerjee, Salil Ankola and Sridharan Sharath for being on the selection committee.

Sharma, who has 23 Test caps apart from 65 ODI appearances for India, had been holding the post of chairman in the previous selection committee since December 2020, when he replaced Sunil Joshi in the role.

He had re-applied for a role in the selection committee when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced it had been seeking new applications for a fresh five-member panel on November 18, 2022.

The development came shortly after India crashed out of the ‘T20 World Cup in a ten-wicket defeat to eventual champions England in the semifinals at the Adelaide Oval.

Interestingly, the old selection panel had been tasked with selecting India’s squads for the ongoing home series against Sri Lanka and had been given duties to attend various Ranji Trophy matches too.

Moreover, Sharma, who will continue to represent the North Zone, was present in the senior men’s team review meeting on January 1 in Mumbai alongside President Roger Binny, Honorary Secretary Jay Shah, captain Rohit Sharma, head coach Rahul Dravid and Head of Cricket (NCA) VVS Laxman.

Das, the former India men’s Test opener who played 23 Tests and four ODIs, will be representing East Zone in the senior men’s selection committee. He was previously the batting coach of the Indian women’s cricket team and till recently was the batting coach of the Punjab senior men’s team.

Ankola, the ex-India fast bowler with one Test and 20 ODI appearances, was the chief selector of the Mumbai senior men’s team in domestic cricket and will represent West Zone. Banerjee, who played a Test and six ODIs for India, has also been the coach of fast bowler Umesh Yadav and will be representing Central Zone.

Sharath, with 139 first-class appearances and 8700 runs for Tamil Nadu in domestic cricket, has been given a promotion to represent South Zone in the senior men’s selection committee after being the chairman of the Junior Men’s Selection Committee.

The junior selection panel led by him had selected the Indian team captained by Yash Dhull, which won U19 Men’s World Cup in West Indies in February 2022.

The immediate task of the new selection committee headed by Sharma, which has a combined experience of 48 Tests and 95 ODIs, apart from Das playing three T20 games, will be to pick the squads for India’s white-ball series against New Zealand, set to happen later in the month.

India and New Zealand are scheduled to play ODIs on January 18, 21 and 24 in Hyderabad, Raipur and Indore respectively. The two teams will also play three T20Is on January 27, 29 and February 1 in Ranchi, Lucknow and Ahmedabad respectively.

–IANS

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