Three changes in selection committee

The newly-elected Indian board today made three changes in the senior selection committee headed by Kiran More.

Bhupinder Singh Sr, the former Indian medium-pacer, was appointed as the North zone representative in place of Yashpal Sharma while Ranjib Biswal was named from East Zone in place of Pranab Roy. Sanjay Jagdale made a return to the committee replacing Gopal Sharma as Central Zone member.

Meanwhile Raj Singh Dungarpur, the former president of the Indian board who is part of the Pawar camp that won the elections, stressed the need for giving voting rights to the captain and coach in selection committee meetings. "Captain and coach must be given voting rights," he said. "It is the coach who has a big role in making policy decisions and it is the captain who implements them on the ground. So they must have a decisive say in selection meetings."

Dungarpur also called for the appointment of a CEO to run the board. Asked to make an assessment of Greg Chappell, the Indian coach, Dungarpur said "he is doing an outstanding job. He is giving exposure to all the 14-15 players in the squad."

He said earlier established players in India used to take their place in the team for granted but Chappell had changed all that. "I feel when we have brought him, we should use him to the full," he said. He wasn't willing to comment on whether this was the end of the Dalmiya era but didn't agree with the view that Dalmiya had substantially contributed to Indian cricket by saying, "I don't know what he has done? Do you?"

The board also appointed Chirayu Amin, Dayanand Narvekar, KP Kajaria, Shashank Manohar and Lalit Modi as vice-presidents.