SS Das ruled-out of selection panel due to violation of criteria

Former Indian opener SS Das had filed his nomination to the advertisement put up by the BCCI for the selection committee. He also fit the bill having played 23 Tests and 4 ODIs for India and also became a perfect candidate to join the incumbent panel consisting of MSK Prasad and Gagan Khoda.

Reports suggest that Das was a favorite pick of the Indian selection panel, however, he did not fit into the ‘retirement criteria’. The rule states that anyone applying for the role should have retired 5 years before applying for the role. As it turned out, Das had played his final Ranji Trophy match in 2012. This meant that the 38-year old was ineligible and they would have to bring in Devang Gandhi for the role.

“He (Das) was our first choice but we later realized that he wasn’t fulfilling that particular criterion. Probably he misunderstood the criteria and thought the board would consider his name based on the fact that his last international game for India came more than 10 years ago. So almost at the last minute, we had to make a change and bring in Devang Gandhi,” a source in the BCCI told this paper.

“We have only filled up the selectors’ vacancies as they were created. So two selectors had completed their term of four years, the maximum which has been granted to anybody so we have filled it up and the senior-most person (MSK Prasad) has been elevated to the chairman’s position,” he had said post the conclusion of the AGM on Wednesday.

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The recent selection panel has been at the receiving end of a considerable amount of flak due to their experience in playing Test cricket. A statistic went on to reveal that the current selection panel coasted of just 13 Test matches between them. Gagan Khoda has not represented India in Test matches in spite of playing 2 ODIs.

It’s learned that others like Nayan Mongia, Dodda Ganesh, Abey Kuruvilla, Nilesh Kulkarni, Maninder Singh and Vijay Bhardwaj had also sent in their applications. However, it was Gandhi, Jatin Paranjape and Sarandeep Singh who got the nod.