It’s only two months since the new BCCI Selection Committee was formed. Already Kris Srikkanth and his team have made a couple of commendable things such as gracefully allowing Ganguly and Kumble to retire and being diplomatic in not criticizing senior players publicly, like his predecessor used to do.
The latest bold move from the selection committee is to keep the team captain and coach away from the selection matters. This move came in after the controversy over the selection of Irfan Pathan over RP Singh for one-dayers against England, a couple of weeks ago.
India is a country where cricket is a religion or even fanaticism. It is even part of politics and plays a role in uniting the country as well as dividing it sometimes. We have a region based selection policy still prevailing here and hence once in a while controversies are bound to happen. Now, de-coupling the captain and the coach from selection responsibilities can keep some selection controversies and partiality away, that was prevailing during some of the previous captains and coaches’ tenure. However, they have to still tackle the following issues:
- Avoid regional bias as much as possible. One could argue how suddenly some of the Mumbai players are out and more Tamil Nadu players are coming in now!
- Avoid making controversial public statements that put the captain, coach or team members into a state of confusion or embarrassment
- Do not interfere with the players too much and avoid frequent dressing room visits
- Come up with a succession plan for the current batting heroes of the test side
- Most importantly ‘avoid the leak out confidential selection meeting proceedings,minutes or any classified secrets’
The good thing about the current captain and coach is that they both have high level of commitment and professionalism built into them that they can make the best out of the team that is handed over to them. Hope the cause of taking Indian cricket to the #1 spot will still remain focused!