CoA Names Debasis Mohanty As Venkatesh Prasad's Replacement In BCCI Junior Selection Committee

The Committee of Administrators (CoA), on Friday (August 24), named former India fast bowler Debasis Mohanty as a member of India’s junior selection committee.

The Supreme Court-appointed panel took the decision after the apex court restored the number of members in each selection committee to five members. Mohanty replaced Venkatesh Prasad who had earlier resigned as chief selector in March. The number of members in the selection panel was reduced to three as per the directives of the Lodha Committee. However, earlier this month, the Supreme Court restored the number to five.

CoA Names Debasis Mohanty As Venkatesh Prasad's Replacement In BCCI Junior Selection Committee
Venkatesh Prasad (R) has been replaced by Debasis Mohanty (Credits: BCCI)

According to Hindustan Times, the CoA has told the junior selectors and board officials that even though all the original members of the junior selection committee met the criteria as per new constitution of the BCCI, the committee had written to the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) and sought their views on the matter.

However, the members — Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman — couldn’t be consulted. As a result, the CoA decided to go ahead and rope in Mohanty to replace Prasad.

“While two members have expressed their inability to be part of the consultative process for different reasons, the third did not provide his views or a response. While the CoA would have preferred to take the views of the CAC into consideration before constituting the junior cricket committee, the CoA has been informed that a meeting of the junior selection committee needs to be convened at the earliest to pick two India U-19 teams participating in a Under-19 Quadrangular One Day Tournament to be played at Kolkata (which begins on 9th September 2018) and the India Under-19 Team for the Youth Asia Cup to be played at Dhaka from September 27.

“In the above circumstances, the CoA is now reconstituting the men’s junior selection committee and constituting the same as the junior cricket committee by reinstating those selectors who had not been permitted to function as aforesaid and appointing Debasis Mohanty to fill the vacancy created on account of Venkatesh Prasad having earlier resigned,” read the letter from CoA.

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The other selectors in the junior committee are Ashish Kapoor, Rakesh Parikh, Gyanendra Pandey and Amit Sharma.

The CoA, meanwhile, has taken charge of the BCCI completely. The Vinod Rai-panel has annulled all the sub-committees of the Indian board except two. The two still-existing committees are the CAC and the selection panel. CoA names Debasis Mohanty as replacement for Venkatesh Prasad in BCCI junior selection committeeThe CoA has stated that BCCI’s management, led by the CEO Rahul Johri, will take charge of the daily affairs until fresh elections are conducted.

CoA Names Debasis Mohanty As Venkatesh Prasad's Replacement In BCCI Junior Selection Committee
CoA has taken complete charge of the BCCI (Credits: AFP)

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