Ajit Agarkar named India men's chief selector

Ajit Agarkar, the former India pacer, has been appointed as the Chairman of the Indian Senior Men's Selection Committee, the BCCI announced on Tuesday (July 4). Agarkar had interviewed for the one vacant position in the committee and the Cricket Advisory Committee, consisting of Sulakshana Naik, Ashok Malhotra and Jatin Paranjape, unanimously recommended him to head the selection panel.

The chief selector's post had been vacant since Chetan Sharma resigned in February following a sting operation by a news channel.

As per the BCCI notification inviting applications for the position, the applicant should have played a minimum of seven Tests or 30 First-Class matches or 10 ODIs and 20 First-Class matches, and should have retired from the game at least five years prior. Agarkar represented India in 26 Tests, 191 ODIs and four T20Is while he also played 110 first-class matches, apart from 270 List A games and 62 T20.

During his India playing days, Agarkar was the fastest to 50 ODI wickets, which he took in 23 matches, while he still holds the record for scoring the fastest half-century in ODIs for India (off 21 balls against Zimbabwe in 2000. Following his retirement from cricket, Agarkar has served as the chief selector of the senior Mumbai team while he has also been part of the Delhi Capitals coaching setup in the Indian Premier League.

Agarkar's first assignment will be to select the T20I squad for the tour of West Indies, with the Test and ODI teams already selected by the panel led by interim chairman Shiv Sundar Das.

Men's Selection Committee: Ajit Agarkar (Chairman), Shiv Sundar Das, Subroto Banerjee, Salil Ankola, Sridharan Sharath.