VVS Laxman to attend all senior men’s selection meetings, says BCCI secretary

BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia said Centre of Excellence head VVS Laxman will attend all senior men’s selection meetings to ensure selectors receive accurate information on players’ fitness and injuries. The decision followed a comprehensive review meeting held in Mumbai last month.

New Delhi: BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia said the Centre of Excellence (CoE) head VVS Laxman’s presence in the senior men’s national selection committee meetings is set to be a norm going forward, adding that this decision was taken during the comprehensive review meeting held last month at its headquarters in Mumbai.

In a picture shared by the BCCI on their social media accounts on Tuesday evening, Laxman was seen in the senior men’s selection meeting held at the ACA Stadium in Guwahati. The meeting also featured Saikia and senior men’s selection panel members Pragyan Ojha, SS Das, Ajay Ratra and RP Singh for picking India’s squads for the five-game T20I series in New Zealand and the three-match red-ball A series against New Zealand A.

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“VVS Laxman was present in the meeting on Tuesday to ensure that there is no miscommunication between the selectors and the CoE while picking the squads. He is the head of cricket at the BCCI CoE in Bengaluru and henceforth will attend all senior men’s selection meetings.

“He has all the information about the players injuries, and to avoid any miscommunication, Laxman should attend the men’s selection meetings going forward. This was decided after the review meeting held in Mumbai last month (where Laxman was in attendance),” Saikia told IANS in a statement on Wednesday.

Recent selections in the men’s teams have occasionally been marred by ambiguity regarding player availability, with players named in squads only to be pulled out later due to them failing to achieve full fitness in time for the tour.

“It is not about transparency. In fact, it is about ensuring that the selectors get complete and accurate information about the players and their fitness status so that they can make the right decisions,” added Saikia.

While this mandate is there for the senior men’s selection meetings, it is yet to be known if this arrangement will also be implemented for the senior women’s selection meetings as well. In the past few months, injury issues have affected the availability of various women’s team players for important tournaments.