As the current selection panel of women Cricketers lead by Hemlata Kala is ending its term, BCCI has invited applications from former India cricketers to take up the responsibility. While the age limit has been set at 60, the Board had made it clear that only those cricketers who have represented India at the international level and have retired at least five years ago are eligible for the spot.
Several former India cricketers including Neetu David, Jaya Sharma and Nooshin Al Khadeer have applied for the five vacant positions in the women’s national selection panel. Adding to these three names, Laya Francis, Shyama Shaw, Renu Margrate and Venkatacher Kalpana have also offered themselves for the spot.
However, there is still no clarity on whether the Board will stick to its generic style of appointing a representative from each of the five zones or would upgrade the system this time. “The advertisement doesn’t specify anything, so it’s not clear whether the Board will scrap the zonal policy or continue with it,” one of the applicants said. ” With the Board setting an age-limit, some of the noted former cricketers are also ineligible to apply for the job”
All the cricketers have confirmed to Sportstar that they have applied for the selector’s post.
Neetu David is a former left-arm spinner, and has represented India in 10 Tests and 97 ODIs picking up182 international wickets. Jaya, on the other hand, has played 77 ODIs and shares a single match record of T20 and Test Match. Nooshin is an off-spinner and has played 78 ODIs, 5 Tests and a couple of T20Is for India. Kalpana who is 58 years old currently will have a time of 1.5 years to serve if she gets appointed.
As per the BCCI constitution, a three-member Cricket Advisory Committee is set up to pick the men’s national selection committee, whereas there is no existence of same system for women’s Cricket. During the BCCI Annual General Meeting in December last year, BCCI chief, Sourav Ganguly made it clear that there will be upgradation in system by creating women’s selection panel which is long pending and very important for the nation.
Source- Shayan Acharya for Sportstar
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