Former TN batsman Sreedharan Sharath set to be named as chairman of India junior selectors

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New Delhi, August 9: Former Tamil Nadu captain and domestic giant Sreedharan Sharath is set to become the new chairman of the BCCI's junior national selection panel, which will be entrusted with the duty of selecting next year's U-19 World Cup squad.

It is learnt that some of the names that the BCCI brass has zeroed in on names including former Punjab batting all-rounder Krishnan Mohan, who played 45 matches between 1987-1995. Mohan is a candidate from North Zone. Harvinder Singh Sodhi, a lanky medium fast bowling all-rounder from Madhya Pradesh, is a top contender from the Central Zone.

He has played 76 games and has 2000 plus runs and 174 wickets in his kitty. He has also been a BCCI match referee. From East Zone, Bengal seamer Ranadeb Bose is likely to pip former teammate Subhamoy Das as the premier choice from the region.

Bose, who had toured with the Indian team during the 2007 series in England, has played 91 first-class games and has 317 wickets. While the official announcement will happen in due course of time, the left-handed Sharath, who has also been a BCCI match referee, is being tipped to take over from Ashish Kapoor, whose term ended earlier this year.

Sharath, who has also played for Assam, was the first ever Tamil Nadu cricketer to play 100 Ranji Trophy games for the state and in his 15-year-career, scored 8700 runs from 139 games with 27 hundreds and an average of 51 plus.

"Sreedharan Sharath's name has been short-listed. He was a big name in domestic cricket and possibly as per criteria, would be head of selection committee," a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

"Sodhi, Mohan and Bose have been shortlisted to be appointed from their respective zones as of now." The previous committee headed by Kapoor (South) also had Debasish Mohanty (East, now senior selector), Gyanendra Pandey (central), Rakesh Parikh (west) and Amit Sharma (north).