BCCI drops hints of split captaincy; new selection panel may pick Rohit in ODIs, Test, Hardik in T20Is

Mumbai, November 18: The BCCI on Friday (November 18) has rolled in the process of finding a new national selection panel but hints have been also dropped that they might be tasked to pick separate captains in each format.

Split captaincy has been talked over many times in the past too, but never really made practical as neither the BCCI or the team management found it particularly appealing.

Now, we might just see a change. The new selection committee, as and when it takes charge, will be mandated to choose captains across three formats which effectively means that BCCI will be going for split captaincy.

This could mean that Rohit Sharma will remain captain in ODIs and Test cricket for the time being while Hardik Pandya becomes the shortest format leader till 2024 T20 World Cup in USA and West Indies.

The qualification criteria for the selectors remained the same. The age cap is 60 years and the incumbent would have to be retired from active cricket for at least five years. He has to play at least seven Test matches or 30 first-class games or 10 ODIs along with 20 first-class games.

The job domain has two key points which had never been in any earlier selection committee advertisements -- prepare and provide evaluation report of respective team performance to the Apex Council of BCCI on quarterly basis, and appoint captain for the team in each format.

Also for the first time, the BCCI job domain description contains that the chairman would have to address the media with regards to team related queries.

Chetan Sharma (North zone), Harvinder Singh (Centra Zone), Sunil Joshi (South Zone) and Debasish Mohanty (East Zone) have had the shortest stint as senior national selectors in recent times.

Joshi and Harvinder were appointed national selectors in February 2020. After the AGM in January 2021, Chetan took over as chairman of selectors with Mohanty and Kuruvilla joining him.

A senior national selector normally gets a four-year term subject to extension.

There was no selector from West Zone after Abbey Kuruvilla’s tenure ended.

Once, India lost in the semifinal of the T20 World Cup, the writing was always on the wall that Chetan was on borrowed time.