Mumbai: At the end of fabulous career of Sachin Tendulkar, there was a wide speculation whether the little master was asked to quit international cricket. The little master donned the Indian jersey for the last time in Nov 2013 during the short series of two test matches against West Indies. While he was set to play the test series against South Africa in December, many questions remained unanswered as he announced his retirement right after BCCI’s announcement of the Test series against the West Indies.
Chairman of selectors, Sandeep Patil who was heading the panel for the last time before the end of the tenure was asked whether Tendulkar was told in advance to call it a day before the hurriedly arranged series against the West Indies in 2013, but he dodged the question saying, “There are some matters between the selectors and BCCI which should remain confidential and cannot be revealed.”
Patil who was appointed as the Chairman of selectors after the sacking of Mohinder Amarnath in 2012 expressed his satisfaction of working as the chairman of the selection committee.
Compared to the high standards of the little maestro, he definitely had lost his game with the bat. He hadn’t scored a century since January 2011, got out on nineties twice in the same year and had scored only three fifties in his last 20 innings.
When young batsmen like Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara were showcasing their talents, Sachin Tendulkar was no longer the automatic no.4 for team India. So was the Legend’s honourable exit planned?
While several International superstars like Ricky Ponting, Micheal Clarke, Jacques Kallis had their retirements planned, sub-continents stars struggle to find the right timing. Hence the speculative stories revolve around them which seems as though retirement was forced upon them. While sub-continents stars Mahela Jaywardene and Sangakarra choose to retire at their career high and are still in demand in many T20 leagues.
Patil was the part of the successful selection panel who saw India achieve the No. 1 ranking in Test. “We also leave at a time when there is big pool of players to choose from, in all formats,” he said.
“Also, a big thank you to the BCCI for providing the opportunity. The Board has taken some great decisions during my time. We are happy with the roadmap the BCCI has drawn with Rahul Dravid taking over as coach of the juniors and Anil Kumble the seniors, We have always done well at home and I am sure we will do well against New Zealand. Hope we also do well outside India,” he said.
BCCI Secretary Ajay Shirke, later explained about the criteria to select the next selection panel, saying, “The 70 years cap is for administrators (recommended by Lodha panel and upheld by Supreme Court). The 60 years cap we have kept is for selectors keeping in mind that those in 60 to 65 year bracket as an example would not have played all three formats of game. They might have played limited ODIs but no T20s.”
The BCCI intends to keep a five member selection committee but the Lodha committee has recommended only three member committee comprising of players with Test experience. “We will definitely have a new selection panel in place. There’s no uncertainty for BCCI. I can’t say about anything else,” Shirke concluded.