Srikkanth

Mumbai: It’s ironic that Dilip Vengsarkar, whose clash with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) over writing columns gave the impetus for having paid selectors, won’t be a beneficiary once that becomes a reality Saturday onwards.

According to The Telegraph’s sources, president-designate Shashank Manohar telephoned Vengsarkar on Friday morning and asked him to choose between continuing as chairman of the senior selection committee and being a vice-president of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA).

The former India captain, one of the finest batsmen of his generation, chose not to leave the MCA.

Vengsarkar, apparently, is “pissed off” that he had to make a choice at a time the BCCI intends “correcting” the minutes of the last working committee meeting, in August, which laid down norms for the selection committees.

That a selector can’t also be an office-bearer either of the BCCI or an affiliated unit will stay, but the bit about it being mandatory for the senior committee members to have retired at least 10 years ago is going to be “rephrased.”

Unless that’s done, the ones chosen by the ruling Sharad Pawar group from Central (Narendra Hirwani) and West (Surendra Bhave) won’t be eligible to sit on the committee.

The reason being Hirwani retired as recently as early 2006 and Bhave, who was the administrative manager on last year’s tour of Bangladesh, played till the 2000-01 season.

That Hirwani wouldn’t be eligible under the existing norms had been pointed out in these columns on Friday.

“Till yesterday (Thursday), the Pawar group had been insisting that the norms couldn’t be touched. Today, they’re singing a different tune... If one can be changed, why not the other one, which bars office-bearers?” asked somebody who’d been in the group which made a representation to Pawar.

The answer, actually, is simple: The incoming president and secretary (N. Srinivasan) don’t want a highly independent-minded selection committee chairman.

Strangely, despite his excellent relationship with Vengsarkar, outgoing president Pawar chose to go along with the views expressed by the Manohars and the Srinivasans.

Vengsarkar has reason to feel let down and probably believes that he has had to pay the price for, among other things, picking young Virat Kohli (Delhi) ahead of Tamil Nadu’s Subramaniam Badrinath for the recent ODIs in Sri Lanka.

As it turned out, Badrinath too joined the squad, but as a replacement for Sachin Tendulkar.

The senior selection committee will, therefore, now be headed by another former India captain — South’s Krishnamachari Srikkanth, hand-picked by Srinivasan.

Incidentally, the next secretary (who convenes the senior selection meetings) and the committee chairman will both be from the same state, Tamil Nadu.

Backed by a very influential former BCCI president, Raja Venkat made it from East. It’s being seen as a political decision, a point made by a senior Assam Cricket Association official, as Venkat has been an anti-Jagmohan Dalmiya man.

It was a straight fight between Venkat and the highly respected Gopal Bose. Their pros and cons, though, weren’t discussed at an informal meeting of the ruling group at the Cricket Centre here, with Manohar declaring “Raja Venkat is best suited.”

Yashpal Sharma (North) will be making a comeback three years after being removed by the same Pawar group.

Surprised? You shouldn’t be, as everything is possible in the BCCI.

Footnote: As a sop, Lalchand Rajput has been offered chairmanship of the junior selection committee. It seems he’s not inclined to accept it.

THE OFFICE-BEARERS 2008-09 onwards

President: Shashank Manohar; Vice-presidents: Arun Jaitley (North), Shivlal Yadav (South), Arindam Ganguly (East), Chirayu Amin (West), Lalit Modi (Central); Secretary: N.Srinivasan; Jt secretary: Sanjay Jagdale; Treasurer: Mohinder Pandove.
Note: Rajeev Shukla, an MP, will head the finance committee.