Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar slammed the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s selection committee, led by MSK Prasad, for bypassing procedure when it came to the reappointment of Virat Kohli as captain of the side.
The 70-year-old wrote in his column in Mid-day on Monday, questioning Kohli’s position not being even discussed by the selection committee.
Last week, India’s squads for the Test, One-day International and Twenty20 series was announced and Kohli was named as the captain in all three formats amid speculation that he might be rested for the limited-overs series.
“To the best of our knowledge his [Kohli’s] appointment was till the World Cup,” Gavaskar wrote. “After that, it was incumbent on the selectors to meet even if it was for five minutes for his reappointment.”
He added, “That they selected the team for West Indies without first having a meeting to select the captain brings up the question of whether Virat Kohli is the captain of the team at his or the selection committee’s pleasure.”
The former India captain further questioned why Kohli was given a free run despite India failing to reach the World Cup final. During the tournament, Kedar Jadhav was dropped from the XI after being persisted with in the lead up, while Dinesh Karthik has not been selected in the squads touring the West Indies.
“After the reappointment, he [captain] gets invited to the meeting for his views on the selecting the players for the team.
“By bypassing the procedure, the message that goes out is that while the players like Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik get dropped after below expectations performance, the captain continues despite much below par expectations where the team did not even reach the finals.”
He also called the Prasad-led panel “lame ducks” as their tenure draws to a close. Gavaskar wrote: “Speaking of lame ducks, the Indian selection committee appears to be one.This is probably one of the last selections for this committee as a new one will get appointed soon. Hopefully that will have players of stature who will not get bullied and be able to tell the team management that their job is to play with the team chosen by the selectors.”
BCCI also invited fresh invites for head coach, batting coach, bowling coach among others with the deadline being July 30. Ravi Shastri is likely to continue as India’s head coach, according to recent reports.
