After a long wait, the Indian Cricket Board finally selects someone as Chief of selectors for the Indian National Cricket team. The board has finally appointed the former India cricketer Ajit Agarkar as chairman of the Senior Men’s Selection Committee.
In a press release, the board of Indian board announced that its Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) which consisted of Sulakshana Naik, Ashok Malhotra, and Jatin Paranjape recommended the former fast bowler, Agarkar for the position of chief selector in the selection committee for Indian Men’s team.
It was in the month of February 2023 that the position of the chief selector was vacated after Chetan Sharma was sacked back in February 2023 subsequent to a debated sting operation which eventually saw Sharma purportedly claiming that Hardik Pandya, who has been leading the Indian team in the T20Is since the T20 World Cup, was someone who visited his house on a regular basis.
According to the press release, the CAC also suggested Agarkar based on seniority (number of Test matches played) for the position of chairperson of the men's selection committee. Agarkar, a former captain of Mumbai, participated for India in 26 Tests, 191 ODIs, and four T20 matches. He was a member of the MS Dhoni-captained team that won the 2007 T20 World Cup. Subroto Banerjee, Salil Ankola, Sridharan Sharath, and Shiv Sundar Das are the other members of the senior selection committee. Shiv Sundar Das took over as interim chairperson after Sharma resigned.
Here is how Twitter reacted to the appointment of Agarkar as the chief selector
Ajit Agarkar congratulations man. Hope, you will do good.And, definitely gonna do better than Mr.C.Sharma.
— Rajesh↙️ (@iamrajeshjena) July 4, 2023
Aamchi Mumbai...#CricketTwitter #BCCI
Great Move.
— Abhay 🇮🇳 (@abhaysrivastavv) July 4, 2023
But eagerly waiting for the day Sehwag becomes Head Coach of Indian Cricket and tells the players "94 pe aane ke baad 6 maarna hai sabne"
The name #Ajit is in power from the last 2-3 days :) #AjitAgarkar #AjitPawar - Am sure both will do justice.
— Akshay Shah - Founder CEO, iWebTechno (@AkshayiWeb) July 4, 2023
He did get it right mostly as an analyst hope he gets it right as the Chief Selector too.
— Pooh (@ThodaYehThodaWo) July 4, 2023
Nothing going to change and India still loosing all multinational tournaments till all non performing players are playing with no accountability
— Jaymin Diwanji (@JayminDiwanji) July 4, 2023
Hopefully brings fresh faces and takes strict but fair actions
— Football Predictions (@nishantfp) July 4, 2023
When Ganguly was appointed as the head of BCCI, we hoped ICT will have it's good days now but things went opposite. Now Agarkar, let's just hope. 🤞🏻🇮🇳
— Abhishek Kumar Yadav (@nerdy__abhi__) July 4, 2023
Also, as per reported by the Indian Express, the Indian Cricket Board official has also had a word with the former speedster about the hike in the salary, which is allocated annually at the designation of the chief selector. The salary is expected to be increased from INR 1 crore.
The other members who are in the selection panel are paid an annual salary of INR 90 lakh each per year. Agarkar then decided to apply and was the only ‘big’ name on the list of applicants. He quit his role as assistant coach of IPL team Delhi Capitals on Thursday. Interestingly, in 2020, the board had not picked Agarkar when he applied for the selector’s post.