Ajit Agarkar appointed chairman of selection committee for Mumbai cricket team

Former Indian fast bowler Ajit Agarkar was appointed as the chairman of Mumbai Cricket Association's selection committee on Friday. Agarkar will be the chief selector for senior and under-23 teams. Nilesh Kulkarni, Jatin Paranjape and Sunil More have also been included in the senior selection committee.

The 39-year-old pacer takes over from fellow former Indian first-class cricketer and Mumbai captain, Milind Rege, after the termination of his three-year term. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cricket Improvement Committee (CIC) of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) on Friday.

File image of Ajit Agarkar. AFP

Agarkar made his ODI debut against Australia in 1998 and Test debut against Zimbabwe in the same year. Though he played 26 tests and took 58 wickets, he turned into a one-day specialist due to frequent injuries. He took 288 wickets in 191 ODIs and was the then fastest to 50 wickets in ODIs before Sri Lankan mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis broke his record after more than a decade. He also captained Mumbai to their 40th Ranji Trophy title in the 2013 before announcing his retirement the following season.

"I've been around Mumbai cricket for a while now... maybe not so much in the last couple of years as much, but I keep a track of what's happening around the city," Agarkar told Times of India on Friday. "If you can spot the right players, have unbiased views towards them, then it isn't a tough job."

Former left-arm orthodox spinner Rajesh Pawar was named as the chairman of the the under-19 selection committee. Apart from Pawar, Avishkar Salvi, Raju Sutar and Santosh Shinde will also be part of the committee.

Trupati Bhattacharya was appointed as the chairperson of the women’s committee while Sangeeta Kamat, Vishaka Dalvi and Rahul Thakur are also part of the committee.