Neetu, Jaya, Nooshin apply for women's selection panel

Several former India cricketers including Neetu, Jaya and Nooshin have applied for the five vacant positions in the women’s national selection panel.

There is still no clarity on whether the Board will stick to its convention of appointing a representative from each of the five zones. (REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)

Former India cricketers Neetu David, Jaya Sharma and Nooshin Al Khadeer are some of the top names to have applied for a position in the women’s national selection panel.

Apart from the three cricketers, Laya Francis, Shyama Shaw, Renu Margrate and Venkatacher Kalpana have also offered their candidature as the deadline to apply for the five vacant slots got over on Friday.

All the cricketers have confirmed to  Sportstar  that they have applied for the selector’s post.

A former left-arm spinner, Neetu has represented India in 10 Tests and 97 ODIs, and scalped a total of 182 international wickets. Jaya, on the other hand, has played 77 ODIs to go with her lone Test and T20I. Nooshin, an off-spinner, featured in 78 ODIs, five Tests and a couple of T20Is for India.

With the members of the existing selection panel -- headed by Hemlata Kala -- finishing its term, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had invited applications from former India cricketers to fill up the slots. While the age limit was set at 60, the Board had made it clear that only those cricketers who have represented India at the international level and have retired at least five years ago, would be considered for the job.

However, there is still no clarity on whether the Board will stick to its convention of appointing a representative from each of the five zones. “The advertisement doesn’t specify anything, so it’s not clear whether the Board will scrap the zonal policy or continue with it,” one of the applicants said. With the Board setting an age-limit, some of the noted former cricketers are also ineligible to apply for the job.

Interestingly, Kalpana, who is 58-years-old, will be eligible to continue for one-and-a-half-years, if she makes the cut.

As per the BCCI constitution, a three-member Cricket Advisory Committee needs to pick the men’s national selection committee, whereas there is no such provision for the women’s panel. During the BCCI Annual General Meeting in December last year, BCCI chief, Sourav Ganguly, had insisted that the office bearers will have to initiate the process to pick new women’s selection panel.