A new cricket advisory committee will pick the three new national selectors ahead of the series versus England starting February. The committee will be decided during the annual general meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in Ahmedabad on Thursday.
According to the norms, a fresh advisory panel will be formed at the AGM. It applies to every other committee in the BCCI fold which will see a new set of members.
“Even during the last AGM, the BCCI had wanted to pick the advisory committee but couldn’t do so because of conflict issues. It finally picked the panel a couple of months later,” someone in the know of things told The Telegraph.
The advisory committee, which is headed by Madan Lal and includes Rudra Pratap Singh and Sulakshana Naik, had appointed selectors Sunil Joshi and Harvinder Singh. The vacancies in the selection committee arose after the completion of terms of Devang Gandhi, Jatin Paranjpe and Harvinder Singh.
Several former cricketers have applied to the BCCI for the post of national selectors which includes the likes of Ajit Agarkar, Chetan Sharma, Maninder Singh, Abey Kuruvilla and Shiv Sunder Das.
The AGM is also expected to give its nod to the 10-team IPL from 2022. The BCCI didn’t wish to have 10 teams from next year itself mainly because of logistical issues.
“Ten teams will mean 94 matches in the home and away format. That implies a bigger window for the tournament which may be tough given the current situation.
“The tender has to be floated before the two teams are finalised. More importantly, the mega-auction has to take place by January so that teams have ample time to get themselves ready before a March-end start. Taking all these into account, the proposal will be to have it from 2022 only,” the source said.
“Another factor that turned out to be important was if the next IPL was also held in the UAE, could the three venues accommodate the 10 teams as the number of matches would go up?”
The BCCI will also have some time in hand and could call for bids in February or March. It will also provide ample time to the BCCI to float tenders for its title rights.
Moreover, not all franchises wanted the mega-auction to take place in January since it would disturb their set-up and allow them very little time to regroup before the next edition starts in end-March.
The decision will also keep the broadcasters and other stakeholders happy since 60 matches will mean fewer double-headers.
While one franchise will represent Ahmedabad, the other could be from Lucknow, Kanpur or Pune. A prominent Gujarat-based industrialist is learnt to be interested in one of the franchises along with a Calcuttan, who has a significant stake in one of the ISL teams.
