Sunil Gavaskar raises questions on Virat Kohli’s monopoly over Indian Team selection; terms BCCI’ selection committee as ‘lame ducks’

Sunil Gavaskar raises questions on Virat Kohli’s monopoly over Indian Team’s selection while terming BCCI’s selection committee ‘lame ducks’

Former Indian captain aka the ‘Little Master’ Sunil Gavaskar seems to be clearly unimpressed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) selection committee, with the way they have gone in whilst selecting the Indian Cricket Team squad for the West Indies tour.

Moreover, he has also questioned the way India skipper Virat Kohli has more than just a say in the team’s selection, as reflected in his column in Mid-Day.

The 70-year-old was apparently baffled by the way Kohli is being invited to have a say in team’s selection by BCCI’s selection committee.

Gavaskar terms selection committee members as ‘lame ducks’

Taking a clear dig at the powers enjoyed by Virat Kohli in the team, Gavaskar wrote, “Speaking of lame ducks, the Indian selection committee appears to be one. 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 raised questions about how the committee decided to continue with Virat Kohli as the skipper of the team without even holding a meeting, which is generally the norm.

“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. To the best of our knowledge his (Kohli’s) appointment was till the World Cup. After that, it was incumbent on the selectors to meet even if it was for five minutes for his reappointment,” Gavaskar wrote in Mid-Day.

Following #India‘s #WorldCup exit in the semi-finals, legendary batsman #SunilGavaskar in an interview with @ians_india said that our batting this #WorldCup finished at number 3. If these batsmen didn’t get runs as was seen in the semis then we were always going to be in trouble. pic.twitter.com/MCC6tVYzar

— IANS Tweets (@ians_india) July 29, 2019

“Present selection committee does not have players of stature”- Gavaskar

Lastly, the legendary batsman also questioned the merit of the selection committee panel. This, he feels is one of the prime reasons that the members get bullied by the team management.

“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,” Gavaskar wrote before making his point that though the historic Test series win in Australia earlier this year was laudable, there were losses in South Africa, England and against the Australians at home in limited overs cricket,” Gavaskar wrote.

The present selection committee panel is headed by MSK Prasad, with Sarandeep Singh, Devang Gandhi, Jatin Paranjape and Gagan Khoda as its other four members.

The total Test experience of this committee stands at 13 matches with Prasad having played 6. Paranjape and Khoda only played ODI cricket for India.

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