Task Cut Out for Ajit Agarkar, Don’t Make Him the Saviour of Indian Cricket Yet

Ajit Agarkar's communication skills are often praised, but he should be allowed to make necessary changes.

Ajit Agarkar will face a long list of challengers as the new chairman of men's selectors.

(Photo: BCCI/Altered by The Quint)

There is something about 9.30pm and Indian cricket.

Indian cricket administrators prefer to start making announcements when the clock strikes 9:30pm. Be it the selection of Indian squads, or other important announcements.

The powers that be are so busy at work throughout the day that they forget the time zones that they are meant to operate in. The good thing is they at least manage to press send on their emails so that the large mass of followers of Indian cricket at least know what decision has been taken.

Thank God for their generosity!

The Period of Stagnation

Else, we would never come to know that former India, pacer Ajit Agarkar has been named the new chair of men’s selectors. This is a big step up from February 2023 when the previous chairman, Chetan Sharma, another former chief selector resigned following a sting operation. But amazingly, then the Indian board never bothered to make an official announcement about Sharma's resignation.

Life carried on as normal, squads were chosen during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Irani Cup, ODI series v Australia and of course the World Test Championship (WTC) final. But there was no announcement of who selected the squads or whether Sharma had actually resigned as was alleged.

Then life took a pause for everyone in Indian cricket as the Indian Premier League (IPL) festival began in late March. Nothing moved in Indian cricket on any matter while the IPL was on.

There was no movement on:

• Indian women’s head coach

• Men’s chief selector (if he resigned)

• Junior men’s chief selector

• Home cricket broadcaster

• Home cricket sponsor

• Indian teams’ sponsor

• World Cup schedule

And Then, a Sudden Jolt

But now suddenly after a jolt in the WTC final, there seems to be an urgency to complete pending tasks. We now have a junior chief selector, but curiously enough, the committee has now been renamed 'junior cricket committee', which used to have a different mandate previously. This junior committee is now choosing India A squads as well. Again, no explanation, of why and how.

The Indian women’s team may or may not have a new head coach, but that is hardly a bother, because again there is a tour to Bangladesh starting in four days. How does it matter if there is a head coach in place, after all, have not the girls managed well without one for a while? The squad for the Bangladesh tour was also announced just six days before the first match, and that too, after 9.30 pm!

The Curious Timing of Agarkar’s Appointment

The home cricket broadcaster and sponsor have been vacant since 15 March, but there has been no movement on that. The Indian teams’ sponsor and World Cup schedule were finally revealed just last week.

This meant that the Board finally had time to look at the new chair of the men's selection panel.

The curious thing was they put out an advertisement for the role and then selected the Test/ODI squads for the West Indies tour. Now cricketing logic would suggest that with the start of a new WTC cycle, there should have been a chief selector to plan.

Also, with the ODI World Cup just months away, this would have been the perfect time to look at where the squad was placed. Instead, the allegedly truncated four-man panel chose the Test and ODI squads. Now that the dust has settled on the WTC final debacle, the Indian squads have moved to the West Indies. There is less spotlight or so they believed and moved ahead on the appointment of the selector.

It was meant to be a selector, not the chairman, but speculation was rife, as is the case in Indian cricket that it would be so. The applicants dried up because of the lack of financial muscle attached to the advertisement. A former cricketer gains much more by sitting outside than inside the system through TV studio appearances, commentary assignments and of course sundry engagements. Hence, no former cricket of repute is keen to throw their hat in the ring.

The plan for the selection panel, as envisaged in the Lodha reforms, was to have the three best men with the vision to select Indian squads. The old guard of the Board fought tooth and nail to make it a five-man panel again. It is a different matter that for the last 18 months, we have had only four men in the selection panel for one reason or the other.

The selection panels under the new era were never meant to be based on zones, which were anyways a relic of the past. But the present regime brought that idea back to suit their preferences. Now that logic has also been junked because they could not find any viable candidate from the North Zone, where Sharma hailed from!

Like always, we will have interested parties at every move, including this one. The silly part is that Indian cricket’s main tournament, Ranji Trophy, has not been played on a zonal basis for close to two decades. So it begs the question: Why have the selection panel on that basis? The Duleep Trophy, for some reason this year, has gone back to the old zonal format, but it hardly makes sense anymore.

A Step in the Right Direction

But the operative part of the big announcement late on Tuesday night was the announcement that Agarkar has finally been named the chair of the men's selection panel. He missed out previously because of the local turf battles. But things have changed locally and nationally for Agarkar.

This is therefore a good move because Agarkar is still very much fresh from his playing days. He has played with most of the current lot of players and is aware of the demands of modern-day cricket, especially the T20 format. The fact that he has been a commentator, a coach and an analyst should help matters. His views have been clear in the sense that he is aware of demarcating formats and utilising players according to the format.

When MS Dhoni was at the tail-end of his career, Agarkar’s opinion on his T20I future was very interesting and encouraging. It showed that he held views without fear or favour. That gives some hope to those who follow Indian cricket. Agarkar also played his best ODI cricket the under current head coach, Rahul Dravid. So, there is an equation to bank on for Indian cricket.

Agarkar Could Soon Be the Sole Man Standing

But Indian cricket is not known for long-term planning. While Agarkar is in place now, his fellow selectors may not last beyond January 2024. The current coaching staff is on tenterhooks with their contracts in place only till the World Cup. The Test and ODI captain, Rohit Sharma does not know if he will be around in either formats after the World Cup.

So Agarkar could well be the lone man standing in Indian cricket while there are ruins all around him. It is therefore important for Indian cricket to give him the assurance and power to make necessary change

There is also the small issue of Indian squads in T20 cricket. Like with everything else, we know that Hardik Pandya is the chosen man to take the squad forward in the T20 format. But what do you do with the likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in T20 cricket? No one knows, or no one even cares right now. We are the masters of making things known at the last minute. If you have any doubts, just check the list above for pending matters.

Agarkar has now stepped in, but do not look at him as a saviour. His job will be cut out. One thing is for certain, that Agarkar’s communication skills will be excellent and he will make his views known.

While his communication with the players, coaching staff and the Board will be fine. It will be important that Agarkar’s communication skills are also utilised to speak to a larger audience-the other Indian cricket stakeholders (media, fans etc). This will put to rest all the speculation and intrigue that always follows Indian cricket.

But for that to happen someone will have to let go of the fixation with 9.30 pm announcements. Will they?