New Delhi: The chief selector of the Indian men’s cricket team, Chetan Sharma, has quit his position and tendered his resignation to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) after he was caught on video making allegations about the selection process and players, news agency ANI reported.
“Yes, Chetan has tendered his resignation to BCCI secretary Jay Shah and his resignation has been accepted. His position had become untenable after the sting operation,” another news agency PTI quoted a senior BCCI official as saying. Sharma resigned “voluntarily” and wasn’t asked by anyone to step down, the BCCI official added.
Sharma’s resignation comes three days after Zee TV aired certain footage, from a sting operation, where he was seen talking openly about the men’s cricket team. Sharma was heard saying that Virat Kohli, former Indian captain, and Saurav Ganguly, former BCCI president, of having “ego clashes”.
Speaking of Kohli, Sharma said the former had falsely claimed that he had been removed from the one-day internationals (ODI) captaincy without any communication from the governing body. “There was no need to bring up this topic… but he (Kohli) did so intentionally,” Sharma continued.
He also accused some players of relying on injections to speed up their recovery after injuries and would play continue to play matches despite not being fit. “Some players just take injections on their own and they say they are fine. Not painkillers. They need prescriptions for painkillers and they’ll get caught by anti-doping agencies. They take injections because they know they will not be caught by the agency. We can’t say that yes, they do this. But we can’t say they don’t do it as well,” he said in the video.
Sharma was re-appointed as the chief selector only last month and was first given the charge in December 2020. With Sharma’s resignation, the selection board is left with Shiv Sundar Das, Subroto Banerjee, Salil Ankola and Sridharan Sharath. Sharma is yet to make any public statement on the sting video.