As MSK Prasad’s tenure is coming to an end, there are rumors that the former Indian leg spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan might replace him as the chairman of selectors of the Indian cricket team.
Prasad took over as the chairman of selectors three years back and some of the decisions that he has made have been under the microscope. He had received a lot of flak for removing Ambati Rayudu from the Indian World Cup squad.
Recently, the former Indian wicketkeeper batsman Farokh Engineer had questioned the qualification of the Indian selectors and their ability to judge the players on the basis of their experience.
None of the members of the Indian selection committee has that much of international experience including Prasad himself who played only 6 test matches and 17 ODIs for India.
Farokh had not singled out Prasad in his statement, but he had suggested that the Indian selectors were not qualified enough.
Prasad’s selections in white ball cricket might be questioned, but he must be credited for the selections he made in test cricket.
He brought two young openers into the squad in the form of Mayank Agarwal and Prithvi Shaw and both excelled, although Shaw later got suspended for failing the dope test.
Prasad’s selection of Hanuma Vihari in the middle order was also a right decision as the Hyderabad right-hander showed good mettle in the test series in England and Australia.
BCCI will have an annual general meeting (AGM) in December where it will be decided if Prasad should be given an extension or not. Apart from Prasad, some of the other Indian selectors might also be relieved from their duties.
The BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, who has been pretty vocal about all the matters related to the board since taking over as president, hasn’t dropped any hints about the tenure of the current selectors yet.
