BCCI climbs down, wants Vengsarkar to continue

BCCI climbed down in its standoff with chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar, saying it would go into his ‘legitimate’ demands.

In a sudden turn of events, the BCCI climbed down in its standoff with chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar, saying it would go into his ‘legitimate’ demands for compensation for not writing columns.

In an apparent bid to effect a truce, BCCI president Sharad Pawar said he wanted Vengsarkar, who had demanded relaxation of the stiff guidelines that barred selectors from writing columns or adequate compensation for the ban, to continue in the post.

In an unscheduled press conference, Pawar announced that a Working Committee meeting has been convened on December 16 in Mumbai to look into the chief selector’s “legitimate” demands for compensation.

Expressing hopes that the miffed chief selector — sulking after asked to comply with the Board’s seven-point guideline and stop writing columns — would continue in the post, Pawar said Vengsarkar’s demand for compensation was a ‘legitimate’ one.

Vengsarkar had also set a deadline of today for a reply from the BCCI on his demands and the Board had earlier said he was free to quit.

Vengsarkar had claimed Rs 40 lakh as compensation from the Board, which BCCI had initially rejected. Pawar, however, admitted that the amount was quite a big one and he also conceded that the selectors need to be paid.

“We don’t have paid selectors, like some other countries have. But selectors need to travel a lot and watch number of matches. And Vengsarkar said he would incur a loss of Rs 40 lakhs, which is not a small amount. So we have to decide how to compensate the loss.”