Candidate With Most Test Appearances To Be Next Chief Selector: Sourav Ganguly

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has confirmed that the candidate with most number of Test appearances will be the next chief selector of India. The board is set to name two new selectors in the national selection panel to replace former chief selector MSK Prasad and Gagan Khoda.

MSK Prasad’s term expired last September but has been asked to continue till the process of finding his replacement is complete. With Sourav Ganguly now confirming that the candidates with most Test appearances will become the chief selector, it looks like Venkatesh Prasad will replace MSK Prasad.

“It will be the one with the most Tests,” Sourav Ganguly told Hindustan Times as he made it clear the candidate earliest to have played for India would not be the chief selector.

There has been some confusion since a specific clause of the BCCI constitution says “the senior most Test cap from among the members of the committee shall be appointed the chairman”. A number of former Ajit Agarkar, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Venkatesh Prasad, Rajesh Chauhan, Nayan Mongia, Chetan Chauhan, Nikhil Chopra, Abey Kuruvilla have applied for the post.

Among the candidates, Sivaramakrishnan is the earliest to have played for the country. However, Prasad has played the most number of Tests with 33 appearances followed by Agarkar who has played 26 Tests. Thus one among Prasad and Agarkar could be the next chief selector.

Prasad has already served in the junior selection committee for one-and-a-half year and there is a legal view that he is not eligible to serve a full four-year term as per the constitution. This clause can slightly tilt the balance in Agarkar’s favour.

The new selectors will be appointed by the newly-formed Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC). Former cricketers Madan Lal, RP Singh and Sulakshana Naik are the members of the CAC.

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