Reports: BCCI Secretary Jay Shah to take decision on Chetan Sharma's future after scandalous sting operation

Chetan Sharma, the chairman of selectors for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), was the subject of a significant scandal on Tuesday (February 14) after it was claimed that he divulged secret selection procedures in the course of a sting operation.

Sharma, who was recently re-elected as the chair by the BCCI following his removal after India's performance at the T20 World Cup in Australia in 2022, was observed during the sting operation casting doubt on former India skipper Virat Kohli and pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah.

During the sting operation by Zee News, Sharma is also said to have disclosed his private conversations with head coach Rahul Dravid and Kohli. National selectors are reportedly under investigation by the BCCI since their contracts forbid them from addressing the media. It is now learnt that a decision upon Chetan Sharma’s future will soon be taken by BCCI secretary Jay Shah.

“It will be (BCCI secretary) Jay’s (Shah) call as to what will be Chetan’s future. The question is whether T20 skipper Hardik Pandya or ODI and Test captain Rohit Sharma would like to sit with Chetan in a selection meeting knowing that he has let out internal discussions,” a senior BCCI official was quoted as saying by Zee.

Sharma claimed that despite being 80% to 85% fit to play, several players use injections to hasten their comeback to competitive cricket. The former India fast bowler also claimed that he and the team management disagreed on whether Bumrah should play in the T20I series against Australia, that took place in September 2022 before the T20 World Cup, after recovering from a stress fracture.

Bumrah is currently sidelined and is expected to sit out the remainder of the four-match Border-Gavaskar series as well as the ensuing three-match ODI series. Chetan Sharma also alleged that there was an ego clash between former India skipper Kohli and former BCCI President Sourav Ganguly.

“Virat Kohli felt he lost the captaincy because of BCCI President. There were 9 people in the selection committee video conference, Ganguly may have told him ‘think about it once’. I think Kohli didn’t hear it, there were 9 others there including myself and all other selectors, BCCI officials – Kohli might not have heard him,” Sharma was heard saying in the video.