Cricket News

Indian Cricket Board wants new selectors to select separate captain for each format: Reports

The Indian Cricket Board in a shocking move sacked all four senior men’s national selectors on Friday after another disappointing 20-20 World Cup campaign. In a press release, Indian Cricket Board secretary, Jay Shah, invited applications for five positions by November 28. The Chetan Sharma-led panel, included Debasis Mohanty, Harvinder Singh and Sunil Joshi and was one month short of completing two years as selectors.

Since late 2021, the selection panel was reduced to four members after Abey Kuruvilla completed the maximum tenure of five years. While Kuruvilla moved on to the role of Indian Cricket Board general manager (cricket development), the board did not appoint his replacement on the selection panel.

This move is likely the first step towards a complete overhaul in Indian cricket to end the ‘major trophy’ drought from 2013. The job description for the incoming selectors clearly states: “Appoint captain for the team in each format.”

Rohit Sharma’s captaincy has come under scrutiny after back-to-back losses in Asia Cup and the 20-20 World Cup. The Indian captain also failed to leave a mark with the bat in the World Cup as people have begun asking for his retirement after India’s semi-final exit.

Split-captaincy is the way to go forward

According to the sources, the board is looking to have a separate captain in the T20 format as it aims to build a fresh team for the 2024 20-20 World Cup.

The controversial sacking of Virat Kohli as the captain of the side has been also criticised besides failing to pick a settled team in a year. It is also reported that the team leaders and selectors didn’t gel. Some sources suggest that the team management was unhappy with the way selectors operated.

According to a report in TOI, head coach Rahul Dravid had a major argument with Chetan after the Indian T20 League. Sources also said that the team was uncomfortable with some of the selectors getting too close to the team’s practice sessions.

The selectors were put on notice after India’s disastrous Asia Cup campaign in September.