Sunil Joshi will be replaced by Chetan Sharma, the man who played 23 Tests and 65 ODIs for India as the chief selector of the national men’s team.

Specifics:
• The role of new chief selector of Indian men’s cricket team will be given to Chetan Sharma
• The interviews for new selectors by the Madan Lal led CAC was conducted on Thursday
• A total of 11 candidates were interviewed by the BCCI CAC via Zoom calls

Chetan Sharma has been named as the chairman of the selection committee by BCCI, while Abbey Kuruwalla and Debashish Mohanty have been selected as the other members of the panel.
The Cricket Advisory Committee which includes Madan Lal, RP Singh and Sulakshana Naik recommended Sharma, Kuruvilla and Mohanty for the roles after interviewing a total of 11 candidates. It’s noteworthy that three positions were lying vacant after the exit of Jatin Paranjape (west zone), Sharandeep Singh (north) and Devang Gandhi (east).

Although Sunil Joshi had taken charge as the chairman of the committee, the role will now be handed over to Sharma. As the BCCI constitution states that the job will be handed to the person with highest Test appearances. Meanwhile, Sharma told reporters that he is really thankful to the BCCI for giving him this great honour and that he will do his best to do justice to the role given to him.

The best part of Sharma’s international career was his hat-trick in the 1987 World Cup. He started early, playing first-class cricket for Haryana at the age of 16 and made his Test debut by the age of 18, a year after making his ODI debut against the West Indies in December 1983.

IN strange conincidence, the famous Ranji Trophy final between Haryana and Mumbai, where Sharma had played a crucial role in helping Haryana win its only Ranji title, was also Kuruvilla’s First Class debut. With the experience of having worked as a junior national selector and a talent scout for Mumbai Indians, Kuruvilla is very much active on the domestic circuit.

Kuruvilla, whose 10 Test and 25 ODIs came in a 21-month span starting March 1996, said that it is a huge honour and a greater responsibility and thanked BCCI for bestowing faith in him further adding that he is looking forward to justify it.

For Sharma, who is now a noted commentator, this is whole new responsibility. While, Mohanty who has been part of the junior selection committee will be looking forward to working in tandem with his contemporaries and seniors. He has plenty of experience in that arena having worked as a bowling coach in domestic cricket and with the National Cricket Academy.