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Former India cricketer Ajit Agarkar was on Tuesday named the chairman of the BCCI’s selection panel. Agarkar, who has played 26 Tests, 191 ODIs and four T20 matches for India, is also a World Cup winner. He was a part of the 2007 T20 World Cup winning team. Since his retirement, Agarkar has held a number of responsibilities, including the position of chief selector of the Mumbai team as well as assistant coach of the Indian Premier League team Delhi Capitals (DC). Notably, Agarkar has also done commentary work during various major tournaments.
The other four members of the selection panel are Shiv Sundar Das, Subroto Banerjee, Salil Ankola, Sreedharan Sharath. The BCCI informed that Agarkar has been selected as the chairman of the panel on the basis of the number of matches he has played.
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What is Agarkar’s salary?
Agarkar was not really keen on taking up the role of selector of the men’s team. It is also true that he was keen on John the last time the same position was vacant but then Chetan Sharma was appointed as the chief. However, this time, Agarkar was reportedly not keen on playing the role. Agarkar is reported to have agreed to become the new chief selector at the request of a senior India player.
A major reason why Agarkar was not keen on the role was the remuneration. Currently, according to Cricbuzz, the chief selector gets Rs 1 crore per annum as salary while the other selectors get Rs 90 lakh a year. Agarkar, who is the coach of Delhi Capitals and also does commentary. It is believed that Agarkar might be earning more than the salary offered by the BCCI. However, the same report also states that the BCCI is in the process of increasing the salary for the chief selector from Rs 1 crore to Rs 3 crore per annum. This is something that BCCI will probably not disclose. The amount received by BCCI office bearers is never released for public reading.
Agarkar was the first choice for the BCCI top brass because he is young, has played a lot of T20 cricket and is someone who is an astute reader of the game. Agarkar still holds the record for the fastest fifty by an Indian batsman in ODIs. He did this feat in just 21 balls against Zimbabwe in 2000. He also held the record for the fastest to reach 50 ODI wickets for almost a decade, achieving the feat in just 23 matches.
