MSK Prasad To Be Replaced Soon, Confirms Sourav Ganguly

BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has confirmed that while there would be no wholesale changes in the senior Indian selection committee, MSK Prasad is set to leave the panel to make room for a new chief selector. The former India captain confirmed that the board will name two new names while Devang Gandhi, Jatin Paranjpe and Sarandeep Singh will continue for one more year.

MSK Prasad has already completed his full tenure. The other selector to have completed his full tenure is Gagan Khoda. Their replacements will be announced soon by the BCCI. The amended BCCI constitution proposes for a maximum five-year term for the selection committee.

But it looks like the newly-elected BCCI has opted for the old constitution of the governing body which had mandated a cap of 4 years. MSK Prasad and Gangan Khoda had started their tenure as selectors in 2015 while Jatin Paranjpe, Sarandeep Singh and Devang Gandhi joined the panel in the following year. And thus only two members of the current panel are going to be replaced.

“Only two selectors need to be named,” Sourav Ganguly told Hindustan Times.

CAC to pick selectors:

Sourav Ganguly also confirmed that the new selection committee shall be appointed by the Cricket advisory committee (CAC), as mandated by the current constitution. The BCCI will have to form a CAC too before the body could appoint the new selectors.

“We will take two or three days to form the CAC. There is no point in throwing up names, because when we approach the players (for CAC), they take a couple of days to respond. We will have an update soon,” he said.

The MSK Prasad-led selection panel had an interesting journey. During their tenure, India achieved some highs like Test series win in Australia, ODI series win in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. India are currently at the top of the ICC Test rankings as well the ICC World Test Championship table. India also have a strong bench strength in both batting and bowling.

However, the phase has also been marred with several setbacks. One of the biggest issue has been the selectors’ failure to give longer ropes to youngsters in order to sort out the middle-order woes. The fragile middle-order has been India’s achilles heel for quite some time now. Moreover, the selectors were also not clear on their stance on MS Dhoni and decided to move on from him only after this year’s World Cup.

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