BCCI appoints Madan Lal, RP Singh, Sulakshana Naik as CAC members

The Indian cricket board on Friday confirmed the appointment of former cricketers Madan Lal, Rudra Pratap Singh and Sulakshana Naik as the members of the newly-formed Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC). The body will be responsible for picking members of the senior selection committee, including the successor to departing chairman MSK Prasad, a former India wicket-keeper-batsman.

In a press release, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said that Lal, Singh and Naik have been given appointments for one year. The board had invited application earlier in January for the posts of the new national selectors. A number of big names, including former India bowlers Laxman Sivaramakrishnan and Ajit Agarkar applied for the positions.

Madan Lal and RP Singh have been members of World Cup-winning squads

All the three members of the CAC have been players of reputation. Especially, Lal was a member of the Indian squad that had won the World Cup in England in 1983 under the leadership of Kapil Dev. The medium-pacer had picked up three wickets in the final against the formidable West Indies to help his team win by 43 runs to lift the trophy. Lal has also served as the coach and selector of the national team.

Singh was also a member of a World Cup-winning Indian squad. As a 21-year-old, Singh was picked for the blue squad that had won the World Twenty20 in South Africa under Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s captaincy in 2007.

Naik, on the other hand, played two Tests, 46 ODIs and 31 T20Is for the Indian women’s team in a career lasting 11 years. The CAC posts fell vacant last year after Kapil, Anshuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy stepped down because of allegations of conflict of interests.

Another former cricketer Gautam Gambhir was also around but BCCI President Sourav Ganguly recently confirmed that he would not be a part of the CAC since he holds the position of a member of parliament and hence cannot take any post in the cricket board.

Ganguly also said that a revamped selection panel led by a new chairman will pick the Indian squad that will take on South Africa in a three-ODI series at home in March.

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