Of Dhoni’s future & Kohli’s stature

Christchurch, March 4: The Madan Lal-led Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) had two common questions for the potential national selectors: “how will you handle Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s future with the Indian team and skipper Virat Kohli’s stature? Five candidates — Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Venkatesh Prasad, Rajesh Chauhan, Sunil Joshi and Harvinder Singh was asked a common question on Dhoni, who has not played since the World Cup semifinal loss to New Zealand in July.

However, the former skipper will lead Chennai Super Kings in the IPL beginning March 29. “Yes, the CAC had one common question and that was about their call with regards to Mahendra Singh Dhoni and whether they will select him for T20 World Cup,” a senior BCCI official said. Eventually, Joshi and Harvinder were named the two new selectors in the five-member panel.

It is understood that the new BCCI regime wants the selection committee to have a clear cut stand on Dhoni’s international future with the limited overs teams.

“Dhoni is both a sensitive and tricky issue and that’s why the question needed to be asked,” the source further added.

A few of the candidates were also asked whether they are “only looking at the chairman’s post” or they would be happy to become just a selector.

While Sivaramakrishnan was a strong candidate, it is learnt that CAC was not sure if he would have been ready to serve only as a selector under the chairman.

As pointed out by Lal himself, Joshi did not have any issues in working with anyone else at the helm. A shuffle in the selection panel is due in September when the tenure of Jatin Paranjpe, Devang Gandhi and Sarandeep Singh ends. “We liked his straightforward attitude,” Lal said after the interviews.

Captain matters a lot to the team and so it is important on how you communicate with him. What is gone is in the past, the two selectors that we picked had the best answers on this topic.

— MADAN LAL