(Cricket news) Ajit Agarkar, 45 years old, filled the position which had been vacant since February after Chetan Sharma stepped down in the wake of a sting operation conducted on him by an Indian television network.

The chief selector’s position was vacant after Chetan Sharma was sacked in February this year following a contentious sting operation that saw him claim that players were taking injections to pass the fitness tests when they are 80% fit and couldn’t pass that digit, they tend to use injections to improve their fitness.

Cricket Advisory Committee incorporating Ashok Malhotra, Sulakshana Naik, and Jatin Paranjape conducted the interviews on Monday, where Agarkar was the unanimous choice of the three-person. It could not be ascertained whether Agarkar was the lone applicant for the position for which the BCCI had advertised, with June 30 as the deadline.

It will be the second time where Agarkar, who has also played four T20Is for India, will play the role of chairman of selectors, having performed the job for Mumbai between 2017-19. Agarkar was part of the coaching staff at Delhi Capitals for the last two years but they have since parted ways.

Meanwhile, from the other aspect, Ajit Agarkar as the Chief selector and Rahul Dravid being the head coach of the Indian Cricket team will be a great sense of coordination and understanding as they both have played a lot of matches together and significantly know about every facet in cricket and this experience of the duo will help the team and squad to perform better and will allow the team to step up on their best capabilities as the team India is on a road to evolve. 

India are a team in evolution, and the uncertainty around their selection panel has only added to that feeling. It all began last year when the BCCI shifted away from the convention of giving a chairman two terms and asked for new applications for Chetan’s role following the semi-final loss in the T20 World Cup. 

But, the board failed to draw a better option and re-elected Chetan Sharma as the chairman of selectors only for the sting operation directing to his capitulation, which has never been acknowledged by the BCCI.

Agarkar’s appointment results in the panel having two selectors from West Zone, Salil Ankola being the other one. In the BCCI constitution, framed as per the RM Lodha-committee suggestions, there is no statement of selectors being appointed on a zonal basis, just that the five of them should have been retired for at least five years and played a certain number of matches. 

While the BCCI has obeyed an unwritten rule of determining a selector from each of the five zones traditionally, the advertisement for the role never specified it was looking for a candidate from a specific zone.

To apply for the post of the selector, a candidate should have played a minimum of 7 Test matches or 30 First-Class matches, or 10 One-Day Internationals and 20 First-Class matches. He/she should also have retired from the game at least five years earlier.

No person who has been a member of any Cricket Committee (as defined in the Memorandum of Association and Rules and Regulations of BCCI) for a total of five years shall be eligible to be a member of the Men’s Selection Committee.

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