New selection panel to be revealed in the first week of March, says CAC member Madan Lal

The new selection panel may be named in the first week of March as revealed by new CAC member Madan Lal. Former chief selector MSK Prasad and Gagan Khoda have finished their tenures, which began in 2016. The decision to not give them an extension was taken at the BCCI Annual General Meeting, which was held in December 2019.

Many big former players applied for the post of selectors, and some of them were rejected in the first round of interviews itself. The remainder of the candidates is to be interviewed by the newly appointed Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), which comprises of Madan Lal, Rudra Pratap Singh and Sulakshana Naik.

New selectors to pick the squad for South Africa ODI series at home

According to various reports, CAC has received a list of 44 applicants for the job which they will whittle down to two by the first week of March. “We have got the list; we will now shortlist the candidates. The three of us will tally after that and decide on who all to call for the final round of interviews. We should be out with the new selectors by March 1 or 2 before the boys return from the New Zealand tour,” Madan Lal was quoted as saying by India Today.

The new selection committee will have to perform their first job of picking the squad for the upcoming ODI series at home against South Africa. “We have to finish this off as the new selectors need to sit down and pick the squad for the ODI series against South Africa which starts on March 12,” Lal said.

There was a goof-up as some of the applicants’ mail went into the spam folder of BCCI and the officials of the board had to recheck and reconsider some names to be shortlisted for the selectors’ posts.

As per the reports by TimesNow, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Ajit Agarkar, Venkatesh Prasad, and Rajesh Chauhan were the four candidates shortlisted by the BCCI. Though as per the new constitution, the zonal system for picking selectors has been discontinued, the BCCI is looking to go with the previous model to maintain the balance of representation. The Indian team will lock horns with South Africa in the three-match ODI series starting on the 12th of March.

Freehit: 20 Questions with Zimbabwe all-rounder Sikandar Raza