Indian board seeks to squeeze the selectors

The shadow-boxing between the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the national selectors has escalated with the Indian board issuing a seven-point diktat that seeks to curtail the jurisdiction of the selectors. While the move is widely seen to be aimed at reining in Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of the selectors, there are provisions, particularly the one banning selectors from accompanying the team on foreign tours, that have caused dismay among his colleagues.

The prime target of the directive, emailed to the national selectors last evening, is Vengsarkar, who had recently been asked to show cause after flouting an oral directive not to write in newspapers. A piece carrying his byline appeared in Sakal, a Marathi daily controlled, interestingly, by the brother of Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president, a couple of days after the gag order.

The written communication is unequivocal: "Selectors shall have no association with agents of players nor shall they participate in events organised by the players' agents or contribute articles etc. where such agents are involved. They shall also have no contact with organisations that have interest in the business of cricket in any form whatsoever." Vengsarkar is the only one of the five who has a syndicated column that appears in English through an agency.