Wright: I should have had selection vote

Finally, John Wright has come out and said what has long been said on his behalf: That the national coach needs a vote on selection matters,...

Finally, John Wright has come out and said what has long been said on his behalf: That the national coach needs a vote on selection matters, which only the five selectors currently have.

In an interview to Wisden Asia magazine, Wright said he was pained that he did not have a voting right when he was the coach although he attended the selection committee meetings. Asked whether it bothered him, he replied: 8216;8216;At times, yes. If you attend the meeting and give your views, it does not make sense that you sign a piece of paper but don8217;t have a vote.

8216;8216;Players think that you are at the meeting and you are part of those decisions. So if I don8217;t have a vote, may be I would rather not go to the meeting.8217;8217;

Wright has been severely critical of the selection system, and has in the past advocated the need to make it professional and non-regional. He has often spoken in private of selectors8217; incompetence, and of how one particular selector would always parrot what a senior selector would say.

He repeats those views in this interview. 8216;8216;You can have the best coaching system and your best coaches, but if you don8217;t get your selections right you are making it very difficult for yourselves8217;8217;, he8217;s quoted as saying.

The system of picking national selectors on a zonal basis may, he feels, have lived out its duration. 8216;8216;I feel the system of picking your national system panel may have done its course, and I would urge the BCCI to study the situation. I have a personal opinion that it should be a professional position, the way it is in a number of countries.8217;8217;

He also stressed that a selector should have a tenure, quite like a coach, and should be removed if he failed in delivering the goods. 8216;8216;It8217;s a performance role. If people think you are doing a bad job as a coach, you will have the door shut on you. If you are picking bad teams, the same will happen.8217;8217;

THE WRIGHT MAN

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On whether he thought it was right time for a change in captaincy, John Wright said: 8216;8216;To me it8217;s always been very simple. I come from a point a view that you pick your best team and then you pick the captain. Your captain has to fit into your best team, whatever that is.8217;8217;

Rahul Dravid, he said, was ready to captain the side. 8216;8216;Certainly Rahul is ready for that role. I hope he gets the opportunity, whenever it is, because he will be very good.

Then he added: Sourav is the captain and I think he will carry on. You know he8217;s had a rough time lately, but at the end of the day, he8217;s delivered results.8217;8217;