BCCI set to fill in vacant fifth national selector position soon

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is all set to fill the vacant spot on the national senior selection committee, which has been left vacant since February.

Former player Abey Kuruvilla's term ended four months ago after he completed his five-year term limit on the BCCI's cricket committee.

According to The Indian Express, a BCCI official said the board would most likely announce the selector in two weeks. 

"We will have (Abey) Kuruvilla's replacement soon; probably in the next two weeks, we will have a new selector in place," a BCCI source said.

Kuruvilla, who played 10 Tests and 25 ODIs for India, served as chairman of the junior selection committee for four years before moving to the senior selection team.

He is currently BCCI's general manager of game development.

The current national selection committee consists of Chairman Chetan Sharma, former Indian players Sunil Joshi, Debashish Mohanty, and Harvinder Singh.

Without a fifth selector, the Sharma-led committee picked Indian squads for the home series against Sri Lanka and the away series in England, Ireland, and West Indies.

Interestingly, the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), tasked with picking the fifth selector, is a member short in itself.

The CAC was led by former Indian player Arun Lal, who stepped down after he reached the superannuation age of 70. According to the BCCI's constitution, no person above 70 shall be in any official post.

Rahul Dravid's appointment as India's head coach, too, was carried out by a two-member CAC that included Sulakshana Naik and RP Singh.

Under Dravid, India won the home series against Sri Lanka and drew Tests versus New Zealand while losing the Test and ODI series in South Africa.

They lost the one-off Test against England last week but managed to hit back by winning the T20I series.