BCCI President defends system of selection

Chennai, Jul 29 (UNI) BCCI President Sharad Pawar today defended the selection policy selectors representing different zones pick the team for Tests and ODIs.

Talking to newspersons on the sidelines after releasing the biography ''Vision Unlimited, the Outstanding Legacy'' of former BCCI President, Treasurer, industrialist and philanthropist M A Chidambaram at the Chepauk stadium this evening, Mr Pawar said, however, ''there is no Zonal selection policy as such.'' Mr Pawar's clarification came in response to a question about former national coach John Wright expressing reservations about the zonal selection policy being pursued by the BCCI.

''There is only a selector from each zone. ''But no guidelines are issued to them to select the team,'' he said.

However, Mr Pawar did not want to answer any more questions on selection policy. As the President he must not comment on selectors or selection process, he added.

Asked how the Board proposed to make use of its huge funds for the development, Mr Pawar said the infrastructure development would include allocation of substantial money for various state association.

''Every district must have a stadium. The associations must spend substantially to develop the game, not only constructing new stadium, the standard of existing stadiums must be improve,'' he said.

Mr Pawar also merely said, ''It is not so anylonger. Things have improved now,'' when asked about another of John Wright's observation that somehow the selection of a team gets leaked to the press even before it is formally announced.

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