BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia said the Centre of Excellence (CoE) head VVS Laxman’s presence in the senior men’s national selection committee meetings is set to be a norm going forward, adding that this decision was taken during the comprehensive review meeting held last month at its headquarters in Mumbai.
In a picture shared by the BCCI on their social media accounts on Tuesday evening, Laxman was seen in the senior men’s selection meeting held at the ACA Stadium in Guwahati. “VVS Laxman was present in the meeting on Tuesday to ensure that there is no miscommunication between the selectors and the CoE while picking the squads. This was decided after the review meeting held in Mumbai last month (where Laxman was in attendance),” Saikia told IANS in a statement on Wednesday.
The meeting also featured Saikia and senior men’s selection panel members Pragyan Ojha, SS Das, Ajay Ratra and RP Singh for picking India’s squads for the five-game T20I series in New Zealand and the three-match red-ball A series against New Zealand A. He is the head of cricket at the BCCI CoE in Bengaluru and henceforth will attend all senior men’s selection meetings. “He has all the information about the players injuries, and to avoid any miscommunication, Laxman should attend the men’s selection meetings going forward. “It is not about transparency. it is yet to be known if this arrangement will also be implemented for the senior women’s selection meetings as well While this mandate is there for the senior men’s selection meetings. In the past few months, injury issues have affected the availability of various women’s team players for important tournaments.
Recent selections in the men’s teams have occasionally been marred by ambiguity regarding player availability, with players named in squads only to be pulled out later due to them failing to achieve full fitness in time for the tour. In fact, it is about ensuring that the selectors get complete and accurate information about the players and their fitness status so that they can make the right decisions,” added Saikia.
