BCCI ADVERTISES FOR SELECTORS, AGE LIMIT KEEPS CRITICS OUT

The Indian cricket board has invited applications to pick three national selectors to replace Sarandeep Singh, Jatin Paranjpe, and Devang Gandhi, whose terms expired in September. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), however, went against its own constitution and kept the age limit as 60, thus keeping out the likes of former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar who has been vocal in his criticism of the BCCI.

Vengsarkar, 64, was a national selector between 2007 and 2008. The outer limit set by the constitution for any committee member, including those of the national selection committee, is five years while the BCCI norm for a selector’s tenure in the current committee is four years.

The BCCI constitution has kept the outer age limit as 70 years. Rule 6 (5) (b) of the BCCI constitution says that a person shall be disqualified from any committee if he attains the age of 70 years.

Vengsarkar had recently criticised the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly for wearing too many hats and speaking on behalf of selection committee chairman Sunil Joshi.

The BCCI had allowed Sarandeep, Paranjpe, and Gandhi to continue beyond September and pick the squad for India’s tour of Australia when their term should have expired well over a month ago. The trio was picked in the selection panel on September 21, 2016, and should have quit the same day or a day before this year after completing their four-year tenure, as is the norm with BCCI.

The board has historically had a tough time with outspoken selectors. Mohinder Amarnath had to quit in 2012 after just one year in the seat following differences over MS Dhoni’s captaincy.

The criteria in the advertisement to pick a selector, however, remains the same as in the constitution.

“The player should have played a minimum of: 7 Test matches; or 30 first-class matches; or 10 ODI and 20 first-class matches and should have retired from the game at least five years previously,” the job advertisement says.