Mumbai: The BCCI Cricket Advisory committee appointed a five member senior national selection panel under the Chairmanship of former Indian pacer Chetan Sharma on Thursday. The other members in the panel are Mumbai’s Abey Kuruvilla and Odisha’s Debasis Mohanty.
The BCCI’s 89^th Annual General Meeting held on Thursday, the meeting finalizes and appointed the selection panel. After announcement of the panel Chairman, Chetan Sharma told to the media that “It’s indeed a privilege for me to get an opportunity to serve Indian cricket once again. I am a man of few words and my action will speak louder than words,” Sharma, who has a five-wicket haul at Lord’s in a Test match.

             “I can only thank BCCI for this opportunity,” he said. Former medium pacer Kuruvilla, who was backed by Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) bigwigs, was preferred over a more decorated Ajit Agarkar from the west zone. Mohanty, a former India seamer from Odisha, was serving as junior national selector for the last two years and will remain in the committee for another couple of years only. The selection panel also comprises former India players Sunil Joshi (south zone) and Harvinder Singh (central zone).

BCCI Secretary Jay Shah in a press release said that “The committee further recommended Chetan Sharma for the role of chairman of the senior men’s selection committee based on seniority (total number of Test matches)”. “The CAC will review the candidates after a one-year period and make the recommendations to the BCCI,” Shah added.

As per the BCCI constitution, the candidate with the most Test caps becomes the chief selector. Sharma represented India in 23 Tests and 65 ODIs during an 11-year-old international career, the highlight of which was his hat-trick in the 1987 World Cup. At the age of 16, Sharma started playing first-class cricket for Haryana and made his Test debut aged 18, a year after making his ODI debut against the West Indies in December 1983.