According to early media reports, Madan Lal, Gautam Gambhir and Sulakshana Naik were the front-runners for the new Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) role. But Gambhir and Naik are unlikely joining in this committee as both are reportedly ineligible for this post.
To appoint the new selection committee members, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has to set-up a new CAC.
Besides, the first CAC came into being in 2015. Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman were the members of that CAC. In July 2017, they appointed Ravi Shastri as the head coach of the Indian men’s national cricket team. However, soon after that, all of them stepped down from that role due to the conflict of interest issues.
Later, another interim CAC was formed where the three members were Kapil Dev, Anshuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy. They appointed WV Raman as the head coach of Indian women’s national cricket team (December 2018) and re-appointed Ravi Shastri as the head coach the Indian men’s national cricket team (August 2019). However, those CAC members also stepped down from their roles due to the conflict of interest issues.
Since Ganguly became the President of BCCI in last October, the board has delayed forming a new CAC due to targeting relaxation of the conflict of interest clause. The BCCI President has appealed to Supreme Court on this issue.
According to the early media reports, the BCCI approached the former World Cup-winning Indian men’s cricketers Madan Lal and Gautam Gambhir for the CAC role. These former Indian cricketers have also shown their interests in this role. Former Indian women’s cricketer Sulakshana Naik was also the front-runner to become a member of CAC.
Gautam Gambhir retired from cricket in 2018/19 season:
To become a CAC member as per Lodha Committee norms, the player has to retire from the game for at least five years ago. The Member of Parliament (MP) Gautam Gambhir retired from cricket in December 2018.
Meanwhile, Naik played the domestic cricket in 2018/19 season. So, according to the Lodha Committee rules, both of them are ineligible for the CAC role.
On Monday (27th January), the IPL Governing Council has organised a meeting. While the BCCI office-bearers will be present in this meeting, and they are likely to finalise the CAC members.