Mumbai cricket’s senior selection committee headed by Ajit Agarkar have reportedly submitted their resignations, after criticism from clubs affiliated to the association over not watching local matches during the season.
Nilesh Kulkarni, Sunil More and Ravi Thakkar are the other members of the Agarkar-led committee.
All selectors sent separate letters of resignation, citing personal reasons, Scroll.in understands. An official confirmation is awaited.
PTI reported that the resignation was submitted few hours before the MCA’s ad-hoc committee met in the city on Friday and that the committee had already sought legal opinion on the issue before it met.
Earlier this month, the Cricket Improvement Committee of the Mumbai Cricket Association had offered their support to the senior selection panel before approving the squad for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Super League that was led by Shreyas Iyer.
Raju Kulkarni, the former India pacer who is the CIC chairman, was quoted as saying by the Hindu, “The CIC felt these cricketers are of great repute and their credentials cannot be doubted. That is why we have decided unanimously to not remove them.”
A group of MCA members last month had passed a resolution on sacking the senior selection panel. According to a report in Mid-Day, a Special General Meeting which was attended by 79 clubs on February 21, “wanted the four selectors replaced because according to them, the selectors did not watch local matches resulting in top performers on the local circuit missing out on being part of the Mumbai probables at the start of the season.”
After winning the 50-over domestic tournament (Vijay Hazare Trophy) Mumbai failed to progress to the knockout stages of the prestigious Ranji Trophy. In the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament, they were eliminated in the Super League stage.