Sunil Gavaskar has outlined the pressures awaiting India’s next Chairman of Selectors, arguing that the position can leave its occupant carrying responsibility for collective decisions while facing disproportionate criticism for contentious selections.
Ajit Agarkar’s tenure as Chairman is approaching its end, with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) moving towards appointing a successor. The incoming Chairman is expected to oversee selection for India’s upcoming series against New Zealand, immediately placing the new appointment at the centre of major national-team decisions.
The BCCI continues to draw its selectors from the country’s five traditional zones despite the old zonal structure of the Ranji Trophy no longer being used. With the next Chairman expected to come from the West Zone, the appointment will determine who becomes the public face of the selection committee in the post-Agarkar period.
The scrutiny facing India’s next selection chief
The prestige attached to heading India’s national selection committee comes with considerable public exposure, particularly when competition for places means difficult decisions and high-profile omissions.
Former India Captain Sunil Gavaskar wrote in his Mid-Day column: “There is, of course, honour of being the Chairman of the national selection committee, but it also comes with a target mark on the back. Like with umpiring, wicketkeeping and now, commentary, the nine good things that have been done will be forgotten and the one so-called error will be magnified a hundred times and discussed over and over again.”
The Chairman also occupies a distinctive position within a committee in which decisions are not necessarily determined by one individual. As the official who may have to communicate and defend those decisions publicly, however, the Chairman can become closely associated with outcomes that emerged from the wider selection process.
Gavaskar added: “The thing that most people tend not to be aware of is, that many a decision could be forced on the Chairman by the other selectors, but since he has to front the media, he is the one who gets the blame. So, the mischief makers could be the other selectors but it’s the Chairman who is singled out for criticism.”
Gavaskar recalls pressures around selection decisions
The former India Captain also drew on his own experience to illustrate how responsibility for controversial decisions could become blurred between selectors and the national-team captain. He noted: “It’s not sure whether nowadays, the skipper joins the selectors in choosing the team but in the earlier days when the skipper was co-opted to the selection committee, albeit without a vote, it was common practice for some of the selectors to come out of the meeting and ‘coochie coo’ with their favourite media persons and blame the captain for the unpopular picks and omissions from the team. It’s happened to me so many times that it’s not funny, for it could have spoilt friendships with teammates. Thankfully, it did not, for most guys knew I was upfront with them and that I would have told them before the media got to hear about the official announcement.”
That experience places the relationship between internal decision-making and external accountability among the challenges surrounding the role. Selection calls can involve several participants, while the consequences of those decisions can affect relationships with players as well as the public standing of those associated with them.
Gundappa Viswanath experience highlights reputational cost
Gavaskar pointed to former Chairman Gundappa Viswanath when examining how the person leading the committee can be required to defend decisions that do not necessarily reflect his own preference.
He stated: “Gundappa Viswanath, is a classic example of a Chairman of the Selection Committee, who had to face the barbs for many of the decisions the committee took where he was outvoted, but as Chairman, he had to come down to the room where the media was waiting and try and justify the omission or selection.”
Viswanath’s experience also provided Gavaskar with an example of how occupying the selection post can change perceptions of a former player whose popularity had previously survived the pressures of an international career.
Gavaskar continued: “For someone, who in my view, is among the very, very few cricketers in India who didn’t have a single enemy while he was playing, he lost a bit of that popularity when he became the Chairman of the Selection Committee. History shows us that Chairmen, seldom if ever, get bouquets for all the good work he and his fellow selectors have done. It’s brickbats most of the time.”
Agarkar successor faces immediate spotlight
Agarkar became Chairman of the selection committee in 2023. During his tenure, India reached the 2023 ODI World Cup final and subsequently won major international titles, including the T20 World Cup and Champions Trophy, before another T20 World Cup triumph in 2026.
The change at the top of the committee will nevertheless place a new former player into a position where selection decisions can quickly reshape public perceptions built over an entire playing career.
Looking ahead to the next appointment, Gavaskar wrote: “Whoever is going to be the next Chairman and however great or popular a player he may have been during his playing days, when he has to hang his boots up after his term, he will find there are more minuses however wrongly perceived, than plusses against his name.”
The BCCI is expected to announce Agarkar’s successor in October, with the new Chairman set to assume responsibility for the next phase of India’s selection process.
