Indian National Cricket Selectors are a committee of cricket administrators, usually composed of former cricket players and is appointed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Their responsibility is to select members of cricket teams to represent India at various levels. The term for selectors was increased from one year to two years in 2006, with a provision for an additional year based on performance. The selectors are appointed by the BCCI's three-member Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), which currently includes Sulakshana Naik, Ashok Malhotra and Jatin Paranjpe.

History

Until 18 November 2022, Chetan Sharma served as a chief selector, and some members were: Debashish Mohanty, Harvinder Singh and Sunil Joshi. This panel was shut down after an unsuccessful tour of the Indian men's team in the 2022 T20 world cup. On 4 July 2023, Ajit Agarkar was appointed as the Chairman of the Senior Men's Selection Committee. The current five-man selection committee, headed by Agarkar, consists of Shiv Sundar Das, Subroto Banerjee, Ajay Ratra, and Sridharan Sharath.

Selection Committees

There are two selection committees :

Senior Selection Committee

This panel selects players for the senior Indian team. It comprises five members from five zones of India: Central, North, West, South, and East.

Present Senior National Selection Committee

All India Women's Selection Committee

This committee selects players for the Indian women's cricket team. This committee comprises only women who have represented India at an international level. Similar to the men's selection committee, its members are appointed from five zones of the nation. The following are the present members of this committee:

Junior Selection Committee

The 5 member committee for Junior players is as follows:

1. VS Thilak Naidu (South Zone) - Chairman
2. Pathik Patel (West Zone)
3. Ranadeb Bose (East Zone)
4. Kishan Mohan (North Zone)
5. Harvinder Singh Sodhi (Central Zone)

Composition

The selection committee consists of five members and a convenor. The five members of the selection committee, captain and coach have voting rights on team selection. The convenor of the senior selection team is the incumbent Sr. Secretary, the BCCI, and that of the junior selection team is the Jr. Secretary. The five members of the selection committee were traditionally selected from the five cricket zones: North Zone, Central Zone, West Zone, East Zone and South Zone. One of the five members is chosen by the BCCI as the chairman of the committee. The BCCI scrapped the zonal system in 2016 under pressure from the Lodha committee recommendation. The Captain and Coach are invited to the selection committee meetings to present their opinions on team players. Moreover, they have voting rights in team selection.

Controversies

Issues with the composition of the Selection Committee based on the Zonal system

Lodha Committee Recommendations and Subsequent Changes

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

In August 2018, the Committee of Administrators increased the salary of the national selectors in a meeting. In the meeting, it was decided that the remuneration of the members of the selection committee would be increased to INR 90 lakhs (US$110,000) (from INR 60 lakhs) per annum, while the chairman of the panel would now receive INR 1 crore (US$130,000) (from INR 80 lakhs) per annum. Meanwhile, the remuneration of the members of the junior selection committee has been increased to INR 60 lakhs (US$75,000) per annum, with the chairman of the panel now receiving INR 65 lakhs (US$81,000) per annum. The salaries of the women's selection committee have also been increased, with the members now receiving INR 25 lakhs (US$31,000) per annum and the chief selector set to accept INR 30 lakhs (US$38,000) per annum.