Why the BCCI senior selection committee makes little sense

The Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) on Wednesday held their Annual General Meeting in which they appointed MSK Prasad as the chairman of the senior national selection committee. But what came as a surprise was the fact that the other selectors who were chosen by the board to be in the five-member panel headed by MSK were Devang Gandhi, Gagan Khoda, Sarandeep Singh and Jatin Paranjape.

The appointments come as a direct defiance to the Supreme Court-appointed Lodha committee’s recommendations as two of the members namely Khoda and Paranjape have never played Test cricket.

The Lodha committee had specially stated that the selection committee should only have three cricketers and that each of them should have Test match experience.

The BCCI's eligibility criteria, however, states: "He/She should have represented the Indian team either in a Test match or a one-day international or more than 50 first-class matches in India, in a team selected by the BCCI to be considered for the Senior National selection Committee."Maybe the BCCI were hell bent on not agreeing to the Lodha committee recommendations but have they made the right choices?

Like for example 45-year-old Gandhi, who has just four Tests and three ODIs to his name, experienced enough to pick someone like a Pragyan Ojha? But yet he has been selected as the representative from the east zone.

For the record, Ojha has played 24 Test matches and 18 ODIs. Khoda, too who has been retained does not have experience in the longest format of the game. Khoda who hails from Rajasthan has featured in just two One-Dayers for India. Though he has scored tons of runs in his domestic career he does not quite know what it is like to play at the highest level.

"It's undoubtedly a great honour. I have a clear-cut vision about how we are heading to the 2019 World Cup," MSK told Espncricinfo after his appointment.

"I always have had to keep notes about what I want to do for the 2017 Champions Trophy, for the 2019 World Cup. There is a lot of planning. The best thing is we have watched as many domestic matches as possible. We have done tours to Zimbabwe, Australia only at the end of the season. Because we have watched so much domestic cricket last year we have a succession chart and jotted down names for three different formats.”

Do they have the experience to take a call on somebody like MS Dhoni

The words from MSK sound like ones which can help build the team further but does he have the set-up to execute the plans?The five-member panel is also likely to take a call on Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s future. Imagine a committee whose members have played only 13 Tests in total deciding if India’s most successful captain would get another game.

The limited overs skipper has played in 90 odd Test matches, a milestone only greats of the game have achieved.

Around 90 candidates had appeared for the interviews after which the decision was taken to select the five. Their head MSK’s career also does shows he enjoyed a lot of success in the domestic circuit but he flopped in international cricket when he was given the chance.

MSK made his international debut in 1998 against Bangladesh in an ODI. He then went on to play first of his six Test matches versus New Zealand. After five more Tests, he was dropped and never got back into the national side again.

Now, in the domestic circuit MSK had scored a bagful of runs. He played 96 first class games where he scored 4021 runs at an average of 27.73 and effected 266 dismissals. He also notched 1719 runs in 88 List A games. After his retirement in 2008 MSK has served as Andhra Cricket Association's director of cricket for six years. So does the domestic and administrative experience now help him pick a player for an international game? Well the BCCI thinks so.

Patil, who used to head the panel earlier, on the other hand, had represented India in 29 Test matches and 45 One-Dayers. So, should not players like him, with a bit more experience be on the committee? If the BCCI can appoint the legendary trio of VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, and Sourav Ganguly to pick the Indian coach. Why can’t stalwarts like them be allowed to choose players for the future?

A former player with more experience at top-flight cricket will know how it is like to face a certain situation. Depending on his experience he will pick or drop a player as the future of the team depends on it. So do MSK and co fit the bill? No.

It does look like that the BCCI took the decision in haste trying to ignore the Lodha committee recommendations. But in an attempt to defy the Supreme Court verdict they have got themselves into muddy waters.