Patil appointed selection panel head, Amarnath sacked

The 56-year-old Patil's appointment to the hot seat, replacing Kris Srikkanth, came as a surprise as his name was not even being talked about as a possible candidate prior to the Board's Annual General Meeting which finalised the panel here today.

Roger Binny (South), Vikram Rathore (North), Saba Karim (East) and Rajinder Singh Hans (Central) comprise the rest of the new panel which had no place for former cricketer Mohinder Amarnath who was dropped after just one year's term.

Chnadrakant Pandit, a wicketkeeper-batsman who played for India between 1986 and 1992, was named chairman of the junior selection committee.

The AGM also decided to raise the selectors' annual remuneration from Rs 40 lakh to Rs 60 lakh, while for the junior selectors, it was raised from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 40 lakh.

The appointment of the panels put an end to the intense speculation in the media on who would succeed Srikkanth and the other selectors who completed their tenure of four years.

While Binny's name was doing the rounds as the next chairman, it was Patil, currently the National Cricket Academy Director, who was given the responsibility.

From East Zone, there were a number of contenders such as Debang Gandhi, Deep Dasgupta, Debashish Mohanty and Arup Bhattacharya but it was former India wicketkeeper-batsman Saba Karim who surprisingly got the nod. MORE