New Delhi: BCCI boss Anurag Thakur slammed Tuesday former selection committee chief Sandeep Patil, and said that it was ‘unethical’ on his part to reveal certain confidential details about Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and others after his tenure ended earlier this month.
Thakur stopped short of saying that action will be taken against Patil but said ‘right people in the BCCI’ will speak to him soon over the issue which has created a major controversy.
Patil recently disclosed that the selection panel would have dropped Tendulkar before he eventually quit international cricket and that it had also considered removing Dhoni from ODI captaincy ahead of the 2015 World Cup.
“Let me make it very clear. Sandeep being a former chairman should not have made these comments. When he was the chairman, he replied differently to the same questions. But after that (his tenure), it was different. It was totally unethical of him to do that,” Thakur stated.
“One should refrain from making such unethical and unwanted comments in this area (selection matters). There were four more selectors with him, they did not say anything. He (Patil) should have avoided that,” the BCCI president added.
Asked whether any action was being contemplated by the board against Patil over the breach of confidentiality, he said, “Right people in the BCCI will speak to him soon.”
Thakur went to the extent of stating that such a breach of confidentiality would make it difficult for any of the future employers of Patil to trust him. “Any organisation, if they hire him (Patil), will think 10 times now. They will always think that Patil will declare confidential matters to the public,” Thakur asserted.
Patil’s three-year tenure ended when the panel announced the 15-man squad for the ongoing Test series against Kiwis earlier this month.
However, the appointment of the MSK Prasad-led five-member panel whose aggregate of matches played is 13 Tests and 31 ODIs by the BCCI has also raised quite a few eyebrows. Thakur defended the appointments and said that they were found to be with the best credentials among those who had applied for the job.
“First time ever, the BCCI openly invited people to apply for the selectors’ job… We can only appoint those who have applied. And they were the best among the applicants,” stated Thakur.
Press Trust of India
