SS Das was to be India selector, but ‘retirement date’ criteria ruled him out

It also meant that the BCCI escaped certain embarrassment considering their ‘invitation’ to all candidates applying for the selector’s job had clearly mentioned as one of the criteria that ‘He or she should have retired on record, from all forms of cricket at least 5 years prior to this date of application’. As it turns out, the 38-year-old Das had played his last first-class game in December 2012 – a Ranji Trophy encounter between Vidarbha and Delhi – with the match actually concluding on January 1, 2013.

The right-hander, who hails from Odisha and played a majority of his career for his home state, finished his career with Vidarbha as a professional player before officially calling it a day.

That meant that on the date of application he had still only completed a little over three-and-a-half years since his last match.

“He (Das) was our first choice but we later realized that he wasn’t fulfilling that particular criteria. Probably he misunderstood the criteria and thought the board would consider his name based on the fact that his last international game for India came more than 10 years ago. So almost at the last minute we had to make a change and bring in Devang Gandhi,” a source in the BCCI told this paper.

Das appeared in 23 Tests and 4 ODIs for India having played his last international match in December 2002. He wasn’t the only cricketer from his vintage or even further back to have applied for the coveted job. It’s learnt that others like Nayan Mongia, Dodda Ganesh, Abey Kuruvilla, Nilesh Kulkarni, Maninder Singh and Vijay Bhardwaj had also sent in their applications. However, it was Gandhi, Jatin Paranjape and Sarandeep Singh who got the nod.

Former new-ball bowler Venkatesh Prasad meanwhile was retained in the junior selection committee as its chairman. There were some eyebrows raised over that decision as well with many wondering why he didn’t get a promotion to the senior panel. But BCCI secretary, Ajay Shirke, had provided an explanation over the board’s call in that matter.

“We have only filled up the selectors’ vacancies as they were created. So two selectors had completed their term of four years, the maximum which has been granted to anybody so we have filled it up and the senior-most person (MSK Prasad) has been elevated to the chairman’s position,” he had said post the conclusion of the AGM on Wednesday.