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Patil replaces Srikkanth as chief BCCI selector

NEW DELHI — Former Indian cricketer Sandeep Patil was appointed the Chairman of the national selection committee on Thursday, while Mohinder Amarnath was sacked after serving just one year in the panel.

The 56-year-old Patil’s appointment to the hot seat, replacing Kris Srikkanth, came as a surprise as his name was not even being talked about as a possible candidate prior to the board’s annual general meeting which finalised the panel here on Thursday.

Roger Binny (South), Vikram Rathore (North), Saba Karim (East) and Rajinder Singh Hans (Central) comprise the rest of the new panel which had no place for former cricketer Mohinder Amarnath who was dropped after just one year’s term.

Chnadrakant Pandit, a wicketkeeper-batsman who played for India between 1986 and 1992, was named chairman of the junior selection committee.

The AGM also decided to raise the selectors’ annual remuneration from Rs4 million to Rs6 milion, while for the junior selectors, it was raised from Rs2 million to Rs4 million.

The appointment of the panels put an end to the intense speculation in the media on who would succeed Srikkanth and the other selectors who completed their tenure of four years.

From East Zone, there were a number of contenders such as Debang Gandhi, Deep Dasgupta, Debashish Mohanty and Arup Bhattacharya but it was former India wicketkeeper-batsman Saba Karim who surprisingly got the nod.

Former paceman Abey Kuruvilla was being talked about as a strong contender from West Zone but he could not make it with Patil being preferred for the post.

Patil, a dashing batsman in his prime, played 29 Tests and 45 ODIs for India, scoring 1588 and 1005 runs in the respective formats.

Post-retirement, Patil became the India A coach before being at the helm of the senior team. With him in charge, the Indian team had made the finals of the 2003 50-over World Cup.