After 75 years, the Indian cricket board has finally decided to dump the system of having national selectors working on an “honorary” basis - starting this year-end. From October 1, the present team of five selectors, led by former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar, will get Rs 50,000 per Test and Rs 25,000 per one-day international they attend.However, this is a temporary arrangement, till Vengsarkar’s team completes its tenure by September 2008 - one of the five selectors, Sanjay Jagdale, finishes his term this year. After that the BCCI hopes to have in place an annual retainership package for selectors who would no longer be elected, but appointed by an experts’ panel.Currently, the selectors get a blanket “fee” of Rs 5,000 per day - for every match, if it’s a one-day game - and an overall compensation of Rs 7,000 towards “incidental expenses” for every assignment, Test or one-day. For domestic matches, the “TA/DA” system will continue, for now. Confirming the move to start paying selectors from October, BCCI administrative secretary Prof Ratnakar Shetty told The Indian Express: “The details of the retainership package will be clear only after the annual meeting in September. But yes, the current selectors will get paid per match from October 1 till the next panel takes over.”Not surprisingly, the annual retainership concept for the future has been welcomed by all the current selectors, but the temporary arrangement, based on a “rotation system”, has not gone down well.“This is ridiculous. So are you encouraging a system where all selectors are forced to land up for all matches so that they get paid? What about tours abroad?” asked a livid selector, who did not wish to be named.According to the BCCI, its secretary Niranjan Shah will decide on which selector/selectors will watch a particular match “by rotation” till the retainership comes into effect. But the two national selectors that this newspaper spoke to feared that this will only encourage the well-established “mai-baap” culture.“I am all for annual retainership. But this temporary system won’t work at all. Does this mean that we have to stand in queue?” asked another selector, again on condition of anonymity.These days, most selectors are in attendance for Tests and one-dayers at home, but the BCCI usually nominates only one selector to accompany the team on tour, and rarely two — Central Zone’s Jagdale, and East’s Ranjib Biswal are slated to join the Indian team today for the rest of the one-day series, after Vengsarkar returned last week after the Tests.The other big difference, of course, is that the selectors will now be “nominated” by the Board from the five zones, instead of them being elected from their respective zone. This, according to the BCCI, will insulate the selectors from the fear-and-favour system that comes with its infamous elections.“From 2008, the selectors will be nominated because we don’t want them to get mixed up in the election process. They will be chosen by a BCCI committee, which will be set up for this purpose,” said Shetty.The concept of paid, professional selectors has been in place in Australia, the World No 1. However, similar moves in the sub-continent have thrown up mixed results.While Pakistan appointed a team of three paid selectors in April after their World Cup fiasco, Sri Lanka’s plans have run into trouble with their Sports Minister dumping such a proposal. In the event, Sri Lanka saw one selector opting out of the panel last month after he refused to serve in an “honorary” position.
