Indian cricket selectors' term to be slashed

By Qaiser Mohammad Ali Jun 1, 2006, 0:41 GMT

Lucknow, May 31 (IANS) The term of national cricket selectors is set to be cut down by one year to three, but a special committee of the board has, contrary to expectations, stuck to the five-member composition.

Presently, a junior or senior selector could remain in the national committee for up to a maximum of four years, while in the past some of them have remained on the panel for up to seven years.

Expectations have lately risen from the new Sharad Pawar-led board that it would heed to the growing demand to reconstitute the five-member selection committees to three, or four, to get rid of the regional representation and make the selection process more transparent.

But after two meetings, the Shashank Manohar-led constitution review committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has proposed changes only in the term of the two committees, said BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah.

'The only change that the seven-member Manohar panel has proposed is reduction in the term of the two national selection panels - from four to three years,' Shah, also the convenor of the Manohar panel, told IANS over telephone from Mumbai.

'But the zonal system is being retained as this is the best system, otherwise we cannot cover such a large country like ours,' he said.

This, along with nine other items, will be taken up at a special general body meeting of the board in Mumbai Thursday.

A two-thirds majority of the 31-members house - 30 BCCI affiliated units plus its president - would be required to effect the amendments in the constitution.

Proposing the change in Clause 32 A (i) and Clause 32 B (i), of the senior and junior committees respectively of the rules and regulations of the BCCI constitution, the Manohar committee has merely added a sentence each at the end of the two rules.

'This proposed sentence would read: 'The term of the selection committee would be for a period of three years as that of the office bearers and the vice-presidents',' another BCCI official said.

'Officially, the review panel felt that a three-year term would give a reasonable opportunity to the selection committee to frame policies and work towards implementation of the same,' he said.

The official said that three years would be enough to build a team as per the policy decisions of the panel made of a representative each from the five zones -east, west, north, south and central.

As per the proposal, the redrafted Clause 32 A (i) will read: 'The all India selection committee shall consist of five persons to be elected at the annual general meeting, one from each zone. One of them shall be elected as chairman.

'The selection committee shall appoint a captain, who shall be an ex-officio member of the committee. The captain, however, shall not be entitled to vote. In the event of there being an equality of votes for the appointment of a captain, the chairman shall have a casting vote.

'In the event of there being no majority agreement over the selection of the players, the captain's wishes in that regard shall prevail. The term of the selection committee would be for a period of three years as that of the office bearers and the vice-presidents.'

© 2006 Indo-Asian News Service