Issues with the composition of the Selection Committee based on the Zonal system • The biggest criticism of the traditional zonal system based on the five-member selection committee is the interest served by the committee members. The popular opinion is that the selectors constantly promote the interests of players from their zone or vote on players based on cross-promotion from other zones instead of selecting the best available team. The BCCI tried addressing the issue in 2006 as part of its Shashank Manohar-led constitution review committee. However, the zonal heads' lack of consensus and concerns scuttled all the efforts to reduce the five-member committee to a three- or four-member national committee. • In August 1998, the Rules Revision Committee composed of Satwinder Vishu (Special Invitee),
Raj Singh Dungarpur, Lele, Satwinder Singh (Vishu), S K Nair, N Subba Rao, Ratnakar Shetty, Bibhuti Das and Ranbir Singh recommended a comprehensive reconstitution of the national selection committee. The Selection Committee consists of three members who have played at least 20 tests or 50 Ranji Trophy each. In addition, the selectors would be paid instead of being asked to take an honorary position, and would be aided by a five-member talent spotter team (one from each zone). Unfortunately, the recommendations of this committee report were never implemented, and the reasons remain unknown. The details of the new structure are still awaited. Several players including the former chairman of the selection committee Kiran More have welcomed the BCCI's decision. The proposed changes have fallen through since then. • In his book John Wright's
Indian Summers,
John Wright, Indian National Coach (2000–2005), championed the need to have professionally paid selectors rather than have individuals play the role on an honorary basis. John Wright felt that professionally paid selectors could be held accountable for their actions. • After the
2007 Cricket World Cup debacle, where India was eliminated in the first round, the BCCI decided to scrap the honorary system for selectors and have paid selectors. wanted voting rights when he took over as national coach. However, the BCCI never gave any coach voting rights in the selection process during his tenure. At present, the captain and coach have voting rights in team selection.
Lodha Committee Recommendations and Subsequent Changes • The
Lodha Committee provided recommendations that the Supreme Court of India ordered the BCCI to implement. One recommendation was to scrap the zonal system and appoint three national selectors who would all be test players retired for a minimum of five years. Thus, the BCCI was compelled to finally scrap the zonal system in September 2016. They advertised for applications and used personal interviews to pick the selectors. However, the BCCI differed from the recommendation in picking five selectors and in the eligibility criteria (allowing for ODI and first-class experience). • The former commentator, coach, cricketer and captain Ravi Shastri criticized some of Lodha Committee's recommendations, arguing for five selectors.
Questions raised on selectors The national selectors often get slammed by many due to its irregular and unintelligible selection criteria and its process. Selectors expected to selects players by considering their performance in domestic cricket's top tournaments such
Ranji,
Vijay Hazare Trophy to choose players for Test and ODI teams respectively. But often its alleged that they select players by considering their performance in
IPL and ignore consistent performance in domestic cricket's. Many including
Sunil Gavaskar,
Abhinav Mukund has slammed them (selectors- BCCI) for doing this. National selectors often select players for Test, ODI teams by considering players performance in T20 format (IPL specifically) instead considering Ranji trophy (First class) and Vijay Hazare trophy (One day format) national tournaments. ==Finance==