BCCI Sacks Chetan Sharma-Led Selection Committee; Invites Fresh Applications

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) took a surprise decision as they sacked the Indian men’s team’s national selection committee headed by Chetan Sharma in view of the performance of the Men in Blue in the two T20 World Cups they participated in 2021 and 2022.

The Chetan Sharma-led selection committee was the one to choose the squad for these two mega ICC events. In T20 World Cup 2021, Indian team under the captaincy of Virat Kohli failed to make it into the semi-finals and also lost their first World Cup game to Pakistan. Virat Kohli had already announced his stepping down as T20I captain, but he was sacked as ODI captain as well and in January 2022, he stepped down as Test captain as well.

India then made it into the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia but were handed a humiliating 10-wicket defeat by England in Adelaide and they crashed out of the tournament, where their performance was questioned despite them winning four of their five Super 12s matches.

Since late 2021, the Sharma-led selection panel was reduced to four members after Abey Kuruvilla, the former Mumbai and India fast bowler, completed the maximum tenure of five years. While Kuruvilla moved on to the role of BCCI general manager (cricket development), the board did not appoint his replacement on the selection panel.

BCCI Invites Applications For New Selectors

On November 18, 2022, the BCCI posted on its website and Twitter handle, that it was inviting applications for the post of national selectors which have to be submitted by 1800 hrs IST on November 28, 2022.

The current selection panel comprising Chetan Sharma (chairman), Debashish Mohanty, Harvinder Singh and Sunil Joshi has been fired. ESPNCricinfo reported that the four current selectors who are currently watching the ongoing the Vijay Hazare Trophy games had not received any communication from BCCI on the development.

?NEWS?: BCCI invites applications for the position of National Selectors (Senior Men).

Details : https://t.co/inkWOSoMt9

— BCCI (@BCCI) November 18, 2022

The current selection panel has already announced India squads for the limited-overs series in New Zealand, which is now ongoing, but also the Bangladesh tour in December in an unprecedented move as no selection committee had announced Indian team squads for two separate series together and so much in advance.

Also Read: IND vs NZ: “Play The Guy Who’s Naturally Destructive”- Aakash Chopra On Prithvi Shaw