Junior selection panel pruning: officials seek more clarity

Some officials have questioned the presence of Raksh Parikh in the National junior selection committee. According to Lodha Panel recommendations, it is learnt, stands disqualified to be an office-bearer of either the State association (Baroda) or the Board as he has completed a cumulative tenure of nine years.

The removal of former Test off-spinner Aashish Kapoor in favour of Rakesh Parikh, who played 52 First Class matches, has been questioned by some officials.

The recent changes in the National junior selection committee have led some cricket officials to seek more clarity on the course ahead for implementing the Lodha Committee recommendations.

The removal of former Test off-spinner Aashish Kapoor in favour of Rakesh Parikh, who played 52 First Class matches, and Amit Sharma, was in accordance with the Lodha Panel instructions to reduce the committee to three members.

The senior committee was also pruned to three members, all Test players, but the junior committee saw a First Class cricketer being preferred to a Test player.

In this case, Parikh was retained, ostensibly, to maintain continuity in the committee since Kapoor and Sharma were included only last September.

Some officials have questioned the presence of Parikh, who, it is learnt, stands disqualified to be an office-bearer of either the State association (Baroda) or the Board as he has completed a cumulative tenure of nine years.

A Baroda Cricket Association member wanted to know if an office-bearer with a cumulative tenure of more than nine years could perform any role related to the Board.

It is learnt that Parikh cannot hold any post in the Board according to the Lodha recommendations.

A similar situation has arisen in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) where clarity is being sought to decide the fate of some officials who have been in power for more than a decade.

Former DDCA sports secretary Sunil Dev on Tuesday wrote to the Lodha Panel and demanded fresh elections to the body.

“As relinquishing office-bearers of the DDCA, we hereby affirm our commitment for the strict implementation of the Lodha Committee Recommendations at the DDCA,” he said in a communication to the Panel.

Dev also pointed out that the 24-member DDCA Executive Committee, elected on December 30, 2013, had completed its term of three years and hence stood disqualified.