Month after Under 19 World Cup win, junior national selection chief Venkatesh Prasad resigns

Former India seamer Venkatesh Prasad on Friday tendered his resignation from the post of chairman, junior national selection committee, less than a month after the country won the U-19 World Cup.

By: PTI | Updated: March 3, 2018 9:29 am
Venkatesh Prasad, Venkatesh Prasad India, India Venkatesh Prasad, Venkatesh Prasad bowling, Venkatesh Prasad junior national selection committee, sports news, cricket, Indian Express Venkatesh Prasad of late shared a cold relationship with the BCCI mandarins. (Source: File)

Former India seamer Venkatesh Prasad on Friday tendered his resignation from the post of chairman, junior national selection committee, less than a month after the country won the U-19 World Cup.

Prasad, who has worked as the head of the junior national selection committee for 30 months, of late shared a cold relationship with the BCCI mandarins.

It has been learnt that Prasad cited personal reasons for stepping down and has also mentioned that he doesn’t want to fall under the purview of ‘Conflict of Interest’.

“It’s still not clear but there are chances that he might be joining any IPL franchise and that’s why he wanted to avoid a potential conflict of interest,” a senior BCCI official told PTI from Mumbai.

When acting president C K Khanna was asked about the resignation, he said: “I tried to convince him but it seems he has made up his mind. He has been one of the finest talent spotters and deserves due credit in selecting a world champion junior team.”

Prasad, in 2016, was tipped to become the chairman of the senior selection committee, but BCCI decided to continue with him in the junior panel.

Interestingly, Prasad is only one among the six national selectors (3 juniors and 3 seniors) to have played more international matches than all senior selectors put together (33 Tests and 161 ODIs).

Recently, after the Indian junior team won the U-19 World Cup, the selection panel was not given any cash reward.

However, the senior selection panel and women’s panel had been handsomely rewarded by BCCI after both the senior men’s and women’s team lost the finals of the Champions Trophy and World Cup respectively.

COA member Diana Edulji had gone on record saying “selectors were rewarded for selecting good team” — a comment that had raised a few eyebrows as both teams lost their summit clashes.

However, many believe that Prasad had irked a senior office bearer and that is why the junior selection committee never got cash award after the World Cup triumph.

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  1. T
    Tauro
    Mar 3, 2018 at 8:00 am
    Nothing wrong in demanding equal pay when selectors of the women's and men's team are paid even for not winning, However money has mad all greedy.
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    1. B
      Bobby
      Mar 2, 2018 at 9:19 pm
      Half of the articles in IE is reporting what the writer probably over heard in the hallways or discovered in social media. Since when Journalism has become reporting unverified hearsays?
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      Reply