Ajit Agarkar, Chairman of the senior men’s selection committee, was spotted in the stands at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday to watch the Duleep Trophy final between South Zone and East Zone. It marked Agarkar’s first public appearance days after missing a crucial BCCI review meeting in Mumbai. Agarkar, sitting alone in the corporate box on day one’s play, monitored the action as several India and domestic stars pressed their cases ahead of upcoming India ‘A’ assignments.
His presence comes after his absence from last Thursday’s review meeting, convened to address recent series losses in England and Ireland, as well as chalk out the roadmap for 2027 Men’s ODI World Cup.
“There was no such discussion in the meeting. There was no discussion over the selection committee. Our whole focus was performance in England and Ireland, as well as the recent Test series in Sri Lanka and what we are going to do in the upcoming series, plus the World Cup, which is our ultimate goal,” Saikia added.
“He was out of station. The high-level review meeting in Mumbai was attended by head coach Gautam Gambhir, Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill, and T20I skipper Shreyas Iyer, as well as BCCI President Mithun Manhas, Joint Secretary Prabhtej Singh Bhatia, and CoE head of cricket VVS Laxman. Because this meeting was called at very short notice, and our head of the selection committee, Ajit, was not in town, so he could not join it, he could not be a part of the meeting.
He was in such an area that he could not join online, in spite of our best efforts,” Saikia had told reporters at that time.
