Tests of character for selectors

By John Cheeran
In the wake of the BCCI elections, we have a new selection committee. Out went those who were fighting for Sourav Ganguly - North's Yashpal Sharma, Central's Gopal Sharma and East's Pranab Roy.
Chairman Kiran More (West) and V.B. Chandrasekhar (South) retained their seats which is not a surprise given the new equations in the board. Madhya Pradesh's Sanjay Jagdale makes a return after a year while Punjab's Bhupinder Singh (Sr) and Orissa's Ranjib Biswal are in the selection committee for the first time.
Selectors are bound to make mistakes and these new bunch will not be an exception. I'm interested only in knowing whether the new gentlemen have the credentials to make genuine mistakes.
Debate is on in the MSM that whether it is a good move to have selectors who lack the experience of playing the game at the highest level. The fact that Jagdale and Biswal have not played international cricket has invited critics' wrath.
Some of them also remarked that the selector from North Zone too has not played international cricket. To put the record straight, Bhupinder played in two ODIs during the 1993-94 Asia Cup. Recently, he was associated with the Punjab Ranji Trophy squad.
My question is this -- does it matter?
Playing international cricket and judging the quality of cricketers on view are two different things. It matters that you know your cricket.
Are we going to insist that a music critic should sing as good as the singer himself? To stretch the point a little further, only criminals should pass judgments on criminals?
That would be preposterous.
If Test cricketers alone were to become National selectors, that would not be a bad idea. But that in itself does not guarantee a fair selection panel.
But then those who haven't played at the ‘highest level’ too can do a good job, prime example being Raj Singh Dungarpur.
The crucial point is this -- selectors should not have any axe to grind in the committee room. Obviously, there are runs scored and wickets taken to consider in each case.
More than batting and bowling skills, a selector should have character, integrity and courage of his convictions. And at the end of the day, your decisions will be put to test on the playing fields.