Former Indian cricketer set to replace Venkatesh Prasad as India U19 selector

Former Indian off-spinner Ashish Kapoor is likely to be back in the junior national selection panel. Kapoor is in line to replace former Indian cricketer Venkatesh Prasad in the role. Prasad recently resigned from his post on Friday. Reportedly, Venkatesh Prasad is in talks with the Kings XI Punjab franchise. He is most likely to be joining the KXIP roster as the chief bowling coach.

Hence, in order to avoid the conflict of interest, Prasad had to step down from his role of the U19 team selector. Apart from Venkatesh Prasad, the other two members of the current panel are former all-rounder from Uttar Pradesh Gyanendra Pandey and the former batsman from Baroda Rakesh Parikh. One of the sources of the BCCI recently hinted at the confirmation of the appointment of Ashish Kapoor.

“In all likelihood, Ashish will make a comeback into the junior selection panel now that Venky has resigned. In case of Jatin Paranjpe and Gagan Khoda, they can’t be senior national selectors again as they are not Test players. But in case of Ashish and Amit, there was no problem with eligibility criteria,” said a senior BCCI official as per the quotes in DNA India.

“They had to make way because the other three (Prasad, Pandey and Parikh) were appointed in September 2015 and these two (Kapoor and Sharma) in 2016. Now with Venky gone, it’s only fair that Ashish makes a comeback as he has better credentials than Amit. He will in any case be the only Test cricketer in junior panel. Unless Committee Of Administrators (COA) has something completely different on their mind, it’s going to be Ashish,” he added.

Choosing IPL over selection panel duty

Explaining the choice of Venkatesh Prasad, the source noted that one cannot blame the former pacer for choosing an IPL duty instead of the national selector’s role. The source explained that the IPL riches would any day be more than what a selector would fetch annually from the BCCI. Hence, earning a higher amount in just 7 months only looks like a more prudent call for any individual.

“Look, everyone also looks at the financial benefits of any deal. One can’t fault Venky if he is looking at an opportunity with an IPL franchise where he would get paid significantly more for a period of 7 weeks compared to what he draws as per annum salary from the BCCI,” the source remarked.

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