National Selection Panel: Agarkar, Maninder front-runners; Sharma, Das in fray

Besides Agarkar, Maninder, Sharma and Das, former India pacer Abey Kuruvilla and Bengal stalwart Ranadeb Bose have also entered the fray.

Former India pacer Ajit Agarkar is the front-runner for the chairman’s post. (File Photo)

For the second time this year, some of the renowned former cricketers have thrown their hat in the ring to be a senior national selector.

On a day when the deadline for submitting applications for the three vacant posts in the national selection committee came to an end, the likes of Ajit Agarkar, Maninder Singh, Chetan Sharma and Shiv Sunder Das have emailed their application as prescribed by the BCCI.

Agarkar, Maninder, Sharma and Das confirmed to Sportstar about having applied for the post. Besides these four, former India pacer Abey Kuruvilla and Bengal stalwart Ranadeb Bose have also entered the fray.

 

The posts have been vacant since three of the five members of the panel - Sarandeep Singh (north), Devang Gandhi (east) and Jatin Paranjape (west) - have served their maximum tenure according to BCCI rulebook.

If the BCCI decides to stick to adopting the zonal policy, Agarkar and Maninder are set to be front-runners to replace Sunil Joshi as the chairman of the panel.

While the advertisement posted by BCCI on its website hasn’t specified the zones that the applicants are required to hail from, a precedent was set in March when Joshi and Harvinder Singh replaced M.S.K. Prasad and Gagan Khoda as the representatives from south and central zones, respectively.

 

Madan Lal, the Cricket Advisory Committee chief, had after shortlisting Joshi and Harvinder in March hinted that they were instructed to stick to the zonal policy. If the zonal policy is adhered to, Agarkar and Kuruvilla will be key contenders from west, Das and Bose from east and Sharma and Maninder from north zone.

Interestingly, since Sharma has represented Bengal as well - he was a teammate of BCCI president Sourav Ganguly in the 1993-94 Ranji Trophy final - he could be considered from the east zone as well.

The rulebook prescribes that the cricketer with the most number of Test caps will be the chairman of the selection committee. As a result, should either Agarkar (26 Tests), Maninder (35) or Sharma (23) be picked in the panel, Joshi (15) will be replaced as the chief selector.