Let the selectors pick the coach

As per the Lodha Committee recommendations, validated by the Supreme Court, only “The Men’s selection committee” has the right to select the head coach.

The Lodha committee does not make any reference to the Cricket Advisory Committee in the selection process.

 

Why is the Committee of Administrators (CoA) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) not enforcing the Justice Lodha Committee recommendations in the process of selecting India’s head coach?

As per the recommendations, validated by the Supreme Court, only “The Men’s selection committee” which is part of the Cricket Committee, has the right to select the coach. The relevant part of the recommendation says: “The Men’s Selection Committee shall select the Senior National Team for representation in Tests, One Day Internationals (ODIs), Twenty20 and any other format. This Committee shall also be responsible for vetting and selecting Coaches and Support Staff (physiotherapists, trainers, therapists, analysts and medics) for the respective teams, as well as providing evaluation reports of the respective team performances to the Apex Council on a quarterly basis.”

It is a fact that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has not implemented the order of Supreme Court dated July 18, 2016, but it was the BCCI CEO Rahul Johri who made it a point - after the Supreme Court order of January 2 and 3 - to obtain clarity about the composition of the senior national selection committee from Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Secretary to the Justice Lodha Committee.

Upon receiving a response that the selection committee has to be a three-member panel consisting of retired Test players, M. S. K. Prasad, Devang Gandhi and Sarandeep Singh were retained and Jatin Paranjape and Gagan Khoda, eased out. But they were part of the panel that selected two India ‘À’ teams for the warm-up matches played at the Cricket Club of India (CCI), and the Indian team for the ODI and Twenty20 series.

It was widely reported in January that Sankaranarayanan had informed Johri he could make an exception to select the teams for the limited-overs matches against England with a five-man selection committee, but the panel for future selection committee meetings should be as per the Lodha Committee recommendations validated by the Supreme Court.

A senior BCCI official asked - why this double standard? The BCCI was prompt to apply the Lodha Committee recommendation for the composition of the selection committee; why has it not tasked the selection committee comprising Prasad (chairman), Gandhi and Sarandeep Singh to select the head coach of the India team? The Lodha Committee doesn’t make any reference to the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) at all.