Guwahati, April 2: Perturbed by Team India’s dismal performance in the World Cup, the Assam Cricket Association (ACA) will propose a string of reforms, including a revamp of the entire selection process, at the BCCI working committee meeting in Mumbai on Saturday.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting this afternoon which was attended by former cricketers and representatives from various walks of life.

The association, a member of the BCCI working committee, will be represented by secretary Bikash Baruah and governing body member and former ICC umpire Niloy Dutta in the Mumbai meeting. They will demand that selectors be made accountable for India’s future performances.

About 30 veteran cricketers and organisers, including Pulin Das, Tapan Baruah, Dipu Choudhury, R.P. Baruah, S.R. Phookun, Naren Sabhapandit and Achyut Borthakur participated in today’s discussions.

The meeting decided that a suggestion would be placed to do away with the zonal quota system in the formation of selection committees and some “really neutral and competent” persons be made selectors. According to association members, they should be asked to assess players’ performance at almost every senior-level tournament across the country to pick out the best talents.

The speakers also observed that the selection process needed to be restructured from the grassroots by making zonal selections “neutral”. They alleged that zonal selectors rarely watch Ranji Trophy matches.

Coming down on the performance of senior players in the World Cup, the association was urged to impress on the BCCI to do away with the practice of including some players on account of their past performances.

Almost every speaker at today’s meeting said it should be made mandatory for each cricketer to play in the domestic circuit and the selection should be performance-based and not based on past form. They also suggested performance-based short-term contracts for players and fixing a limit for them to act in commercial endorsements.

The BCCI has expressed reluctance to go for a performance-based contract system as it has been adopted by Pakistan after similar debacle in the West Indies.

The veterans felt the Caribbean debacle could be a fallout of excessive cricket and mooted a two-team strategy adopted by Australia to cope with the burnout problem. Some of the speakers also blamed the team management for continuing with their experimentation.