The Hindu : Sport : Winds of change needed in selection policy

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Thursday, Aug 27, 2009
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Winds of change needed in selection policy

For the selection system to attract less criticism some changes have to be made, writes Makarand Waingankar

Indian cricket administrators are good at anticipating and foreseeing situations which could create problems for them but they also know that they will be able to fulfil their ambitions only if the cricketers are given space to perform.

Whatever may have happened in Delhi, the fact remains that there are four quality players — Sehwag, Gambhir, Nehra and Ishant Sharma — in the Indian team compared to 38 times national champion Mumbai, which has had only one for many years.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that the cricket administration of DDCA is flawless and the administration of Mumbai Cricket Association is not very professional.

To the credit of Sehwag he chose to say what many senior playing cricketers of other States have refrained from saying, fearing the displeasure of the well connected officials who could be useful to them after retirement.

Compromise formula

One doesn’t know the effect the compromise formula will have on the future of cricket in Delhi, but there seems to be clash of ego. While playing players tend to find fault with the system but when they get into administration, they are the ones who are unable to sort out cricketing issues.

The BCCI has over the years streamlined the administrative system professionally. Over 100 teams participate in the BCCI tournaments and the percentage of bad selections has reduced considerably though there have been blatant cases of nepotism.

The reason attributed to such a system is that there has not been a conclave of the heads of the selection committees of various states with the national selection committee. If the heads of the states senior selection committee get to hear the views of the national selection committee in a conclave, then there is scope for them to adopt certain norms which they may have overlooked.

Silver lining

The silver lining here is that many of the state teams are following the Mumbai module of cricket improvement committee which takes all the cricketing decisions that have to be implemented by the managing committee.

Not that these committees have acted without bias but Sharad Pawar at least has ensured that the onus of being fair is on a renowned cricketing personality who is the chairman. This could be the reason why Sunil Gavaskar was appointed chairman of the cricket improvement committee of the MCA.

The situation is not as bad as it is made out to be, but if the selection process at the junior level has a BCCI observer attending the committee meetings while picking the probables or has a random visit system, the system will attract less criticism.

At the moment there is a suspicion in the cricketing circles about the mismanaged selection process that encourages manipulations. It needs the winds of change.

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