Chetan Sharma has stepped down as the chief selector of the Indian team, Cricbuzz has reported.
The decision follows a sting operation by a television channel in which he was seen making some shocking revelations, including a never-heard-before comment that Indian players enhance fitness by taking injections.
According to sources in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the beleaguered chairman sent in his resignation to the board which was accepted. A formal communication is expected but there is no immediate indication who will step into the position. Shiv Sundar Das, the selector from East Zone, is likely to succeed.
Cricbuzz understands that the initial impression among the mandarins of the BCCI was that the chairman was subject to an unethical act of sting operation but as time passed, Chetan’s continuation became untenable.
It was later felt that the chief selector’s comments caused a trust deficit with the Indian players, including two current skippers – Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya. Chetan was also heard making comments about former captain Virat Kohli and former BCCI president Sourav Ganguly.
Chetan is believed to have sent in his resignation from Kolkata, where he had gone to watch the Ranji Trophy final between Bengal and Saurashtra. He was seated with all four of his colleagues – Salil Ankola, Subroto Banerjee and S Sharath, besides Das – on Thursday, the Day One of the Ranji final, and was largely protected from any media persons at the ground. On Friday, however, he was not seen at the Eden.
The voluntary exit by the chief selector has made things simple for the BCCI which, otherwise, would have had to be engaged in a long-winding disciplinary procedure starting with a showcause notice, a temporary imposition of suspension and then a formal hearing followed by a decision from the Ethics Officer.
Among the slew of revelations that Chetan was seen making in the sting operation was that the Indian players were taking injections for fitness. The allegation, directly or obliquely, made the BCCI complicit in the unfair practice in which the players allegedly resort to accelerate their return to the national team despite not being fully fit.
His comments about the infamous saga over Kohli’s resignation did not go down well with the Indian players who were, it was learnt, not prepared to share a selection committee meeting with the chief selector.
Chetan was heard talking about the poor relationship between Kohli and Ganguly, the latter in particular, he said was against the former captain. He called their equation an ego clash and
somewhere in the disclosures, caught on a secret camera, he also dropped the name of current captain Rohit Sharma.
He was also seen stating that the Indian team management was in a rush to draft Jasprit Bumrah into the national team and it was evident that the selection committee and the team management were not on the same page over the rehabilitation and fitness of the India spearhead. The most scathing comment, yet, was that many players, including Hardik Pandya, would come and sit in his house for hours.
Chetan was the lone survivor of the purge that the BCCI initiated following a none-too-impressive showing of the national team at the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia last year. The BCCI called for fresh applications and following an interview process, appointed four new selectors with Chetan, a former India bowler, retained as the chairman.
