Two former Indian players Pragyan Ojha and Rudra Pratap Singh are tipped to become new members in the senior selection committee. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had called for applicants for the position of two national selectors last month.
The Indian Express understands that the BCCI board received lukewarm response from well known former international cricketers. Former India pacer Praveen Kumar did apply for the national selectors role. Apart from him, former Uttar Pradesh pacer Ashish Winston Zaidi and Himachal Pradesh’s Shakti Singh were the other candidates from Central Zone.
The Indian board had kept certain criteria to replace their two outgoing selectors Subroto Banerjee (Central) and S Sharath (South). As per the Indian board, the applicant should have played a minimum of seven Test Matches; or 30 First-Class Matches; or 10 ODIs and 20 First-Class Matches. The applicant should have retired from the game at least five years prior and he must not have been a member of any cricket committee of the BCCI for a cumulative period of five years.
RP Singh has represented India in 14 Tests, 58 ODIs and 10 T20Is between 2005 and 2011. He was part of the Indian team led by MS Dhoni that won the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa.
Meanwhile, Ojha had represented India in 24 Tests and played in 18 ODIs and 6 T20Is between 2008 and 2013. As per procedure, the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC)-comprising of Ashok Malhotra, Jatin Paranjpe and Sulakshna Naik will be shortlisting the candidates for two posts in the senior selection committee and they will be interviewing them. The CAC will then recommend the names of the candidates chosen to BCCI office-bearers who will then approve CAC’s recommendation. The two new selectors are expected to take charge from next month.
