Selectors too can be picked for questioning: BCCI

Under pressure to clear its name of bias, the BCCI today said the inquiry into bribery allegations against Abhijit Kale would be ‘&#145...

Under pressure to clear its name of bias, the BCCI today said the inquiry into bribery allegations against Abhijit Kale would be ‘‘free to question anybody including the selectors’’. Board secretary S K Nair said this as criticism grew of the manner in which the BCCI appeared to have made up its mind over Kale’s guilt in the case.

‘‘Anybody can be called to complete the inquiry and, if he (probe panel head DV Subba Rao) wants to question the selectors or any other person, it is open to him,” Nair said on a television channel. Earlier in the day, Maharashtra Cricket Association chairman Balasaheb Thorve had urged the BCCI for a wider probe into the allegations and also to initiate an inquiry to find the authenticity of the charges levelled by the two selectors.

Meanwhile, Kale appeared before the MCA’s own three-member inquiry committee and claimed ‘‘total innocence’’ in the matter. After a two-hour hearing, Kale told reporters that he was “totally innocent” and denied offering any money to national selectors.

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However, the main inquiry is obviously that st up by the BCCI, which will be handled by Subba Rao. Current chairman of the Bar Council of India, Rao had been manager of the Indian team on the 1997 tour of West Indies.

Though he’s not expected to start work on the case before Monday, he said he was confident of wrapping it up within the 15-day deadline. ‘‘There are only three people involved. So I am sure that I have enough time on hand. But if a bombshell comes up then obviously it will be a different issue’’, he told The Sunday Express. What he is already aware of is the gravity of the case. ‘‘First it was Cronje and match-fixing and now this. I am worried that credibility of the game is going down. The cancer is slowly spreading and has just reached the most pure form of life — sports.’’

Rao was unwilling, though, to comment when asked what he’d do if he made no headway in this case, given that it’s essentially one man’s word against another’s. ‘‘I can’t hazard a guess on what will happen or any such thing related to the case. I will be going purely by evidence on record.’’

	‘A’ team selection, B-grade jokes

			CHANDRESH NARAYANAN PUNE, NOVEMBER 22 Since it started here in 1994-95, ‘A’ team cricket has been dogged by controversies over team selection. With no clear direction or idea on who or what constitutes an ‘A’ team — Test and ODI discards or junior stars? — selectors struggled in the very first series against England ‘A’. The problem hasn’t disappeared with time; indeed, as the number of matches increases, so have rumours of players being unfairly picked or dropped. And, unlike the Test team, where there is closer scrutiny, ‘A’ team selection controversies usually go unreported. Here are three that did make news: • KANWALJIT SINGH (Tour of Holland and Denmark, 1999): A shocker. Kanwaljeet was 40 when picked for the tour — coach Krishnamachari Srikkanth was 39, manager Kirti Azad 38 — and retired two seasons later. Successful on the domestic circuit, Kanwaljeet was kept out of the senior team by Shivlal Yadav and Arshad Ayub. Now runs an academy with Mohammed Azharuddin in Hyderabad •MITHUN MANHAS (vs Australia, 1999): Read this and weep. Fast bowler Amit Bhandari was pulled out for the senior team’s matches in Toronto and Nairobi. Logic suggests you replace one quickie with another — so the selectors named Manhas in the side. Only problem: Manhas was an opener, but the selectors publicly said they thought he could bowl, and fast! Coach Srikkanth then had to plead for another quick, Nehra was drafted in and Manhas politely asked to leave the team. •N MADHUKAR (Pakistan tour, 1997-8): A surprise selection because he had no memorable performance in domestic cricket. Word was that the left-arm seamer was included only because of his father, a senior official with the Andhra Cricket Association (ACA). A complaint was lodged with then BCCI president Raj Singh Dungarpur, but nothing came out of it..

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