Former Indian cricket manager Ravi Shastri has finally revealed his thoughts on the selection meeting during his tenure. In an interview with ESPNCricinfo, Shastri said he had never participated in a selection meeting during his seven years as the team’s coach. He also added that he had never been invited to such a gathering. However, there were many attendees who were “not supposed” to take part in the meeting.
Shastri went on to express his opinion that it is important for coaches to listen to selectors and understand selectors thoughts in order to determine what is best for their team. However, he made it clear that he did not intend to attend the meeting for voting purpose but just to understand the plan and thinking of the selectors.
The former director revealed that he had no first-hand experience, saying he had no idea who attended the meeting or how it went. However, he noted that he had been told that the meeting was attended by many individuals who should not have been present, and that it was constitutional violations.
The Indian cricket team had roller-coaster ride after few months of Shastri’s departure in 2021. Virat Kohli was removed as captain in ODI and resigned from his leadership role in Tests a month later. Kohli’s fallout with then-BCCI president Sourav Ganguly was also reported, and there were also allegations that Ganguly attended selection meetings during his tenure.
Ganguly left the BCCI presidency in October 2022 and was succeeded by Roger Binny. Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma took over as full-time captain across all formats in 2022 before Hardik Pandya took over as T20I captain in early 2023. Notably, both Rohit and Kohli were not part of India’s two T20I series this year.
