Pranab is out, along with Yashpal and Gopal Sharma

Calcutta: The three senior national selectors widely seen as pro-Sourav Ganguly ? North’s Yashpal Sharma, Central’s Gopal Sharma and, of course, East’s Pranab Roy ? have been given the boot.

While Kiran More (West) and V.B. Chandrasekhar (South) have retained their seats, Madhya Pradesh’s Sanjay Jagdale makes a return after a year. Punjab’s Bhupinder Singh (Sr) and Orissa’s Ranjib Biswal are in for the first time.

As a selector can be around for a maximum of four years, Pranab could have had stayed for 2005-06 too. Poor Yashpal and Gopal, they got sacked after just one year.

According to The Telegraph’s sources, the new dispensation had almost decided on nominating Vidarbha’s Ashok Bhagwat as the new man from Central, but somebody then suggested Jagdale be brought back.

Ironically, even Pranab’s home association (Bengal) went along with the intra-zonal decision to nominate Biswal, a former Congress MP.

Like Jagdale, though, Biswal hasn’t played international cricket.

Bhupinder, it may be recalled, appeared in two ODIs during the 1993-94 Asia Cup. More recently, he was associated with the Punjab Ranji Trophy squad.