After a month of lobbying, the drama over the new senior national selection panel is set to end on Thursday with the names of the five men to be announced by the BCCI after they are approved at its 83rd Annual General Meeting, says a report in Hindustan Times, adding that unless there has been a drastic change overnight, India's national team is set to be decided for at least the next two years by Roger Binny (South), Abey Kuruvilla (West), Vikram Rathour (North), Sunil Chaturvedi (Central) and Devang Gandhi (East).
“While Binny - the highest wicket-taker during India's victorious 1983 World Cup campaign is set to be named panel chief - and Mumbai pacer Kuruvilla, who opened India's bowling in 1997, were unanimous choices from their respective zones, it took a lot of convincing for the BCCI bosses to zero in on selectors from the other three zones,” adds the report.
Meanwhile The Times Of India reports that four members of the current panel, including chief selector Krishnamachari Srikkanth, are to depart after having completed their tenure of four years, during the course of which they saw India ascend the pinnacle of world cricket -- in both Tests and ODIs -- with the World Cup triumph last year being the icing on the cake.
Srikkanth (South Zone) and fellow-selectors Narendra Hirwani (Central), Raja Venkat (East) and Surendra Bhave (West) have completed their term and are not eligible to continue as per the board's norms, which has not been followed strictly in the past.
According to a report in Mid-Day, Amarnath’s re-appointment may not happen as there is a move to make either another former Delhi Test cricketer Chetan Chauhan or Punjab's Vikram Rathore as the zonal selector in his place. "Mohinder Amarnath had a tiff with Srikkanth as he wanted to replace (Mahendra Singh) Dhoni with (Virender) Sehwag (in the aftermath of India's row of eight Test defeats in England and Australia). As captain of Chennai Super Kings, Dhoni has the backing of the president (N Srinivasan)," an official of a BCCI affiliate said on condition of anonymity.
“When he was brought into the panel from the Indian Premier League governing council, Amarnath was reported to have been promised chairmanship of the committee once Srikkanth completed his term. If Amarnath is not retained, Roger Binny, who is the frontrunner to take Srikkanth's place from South Zone, would become the new chief selector, it is learnt,” says the report, adding that there is a tussle going on for the sole representative's spot from East Zone with quite a few claimants like Deep Das Gupta, Dewang Gandhi, Arup Bhattacharjee (all from Bengal), Orissa's Debasish Mohanty and Jharkhand's Subroto Banerjee and the zonal representatives have to come to a consensus.
“The final decision on the appointment of selectors, who would get Rs. 40 lakh annually as salary, lies with the Board members after they get feedbacks from the zones, according to the BCCI sources. From West, Mumbai's Abey Kuruvilla, a former India pace bowler, appears to be the frontrunner after having chaired the junior selection committee that picked the World Cup Under-19 winning team,” adds the report.
Others in the running are former pacer Karsan Ghavri, ex-stumper Nayan Mongia and former coach Anshuman Gaekwad, it was learnt. Former UP wicketkeeper-batsman Sunil Chaturvedi's name is the most prominent from among those making the rounds from Central Zone.
