Former Indian all-rounder and outspoken commentator Ravi Shastri has slammed the recommendations imposed by the Lodha Panel, in its guidelines to the BCCI. In the wake of the IPL controversy, the Lodha panel had recommended several aspects to the BCCI, which were quite contradictory to the way in which the board functions currently. A couple of those recommendations involved having a maximum of three national selectors and a compulsory “cooling off” period after 3 years.
Shastri, in his interaction with Sanjay Manjrekar, was critical about the panel’s recommendation during the ongoing test between India and New Zealand at Kanpur. Shastri maintained that for a nation as vast as India, there at least needed to be five selectors so that clearer inputs would come into the fray. Shastri also openly questioned the three years cooling off period.
“Why would I join BCCI if there’s cooling off period?” Shastri said. “If I have an idea which is constructive and which I can do, I mean you are telling me to go in three years. What would anyone achieve in three years? How do you know the guy coming after me is competent enough?”If I have done a competent job, then I should be respected for my competence. There is no harm if I get a six-year term. Then go for three-year cooling off and come back for another six years. Even Indian presidential candidate gets five years.”
Opening up about his views on the policy of selectors, Shastri added, “When I played the game, three selectors were enough but the manner in which interest has grown, the combined number of people who play the game in our country is more than combined population of other cricket playing nations. “Australia can have three selectors as they have a population of 17 million. We have a population of 1.2 billion. You are asking too much from poor the selector. They can cover each end of the country but still won’t be enough. I think five is in order,” Shastri said.
“If things would have been that bad, we would not have been where we are today. Yes, there were mistakes and a whack in the backside is needed. So let’s be practical if it can work or not. There can be total chaos where other countries will go ahead of us and it will take years to climb back,” the former all-rounder added.