The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) recently appointed Ajit Agarkar as the chief selector of the Indian men’s team. The move is being looked at as a landmark one for more reasons than one. This is because the Indian Cricket Board broke many previous existing traditions to rope in the former India pacer as the chief selector.

Not only did they overlook that there was already a member from the West Zone, Salil Ankola, present in the committee and went ahead and picked Agarkar, it is further being learned that the BCCI has promised a revised pay package for Agarkar to rope him as the chief selector.

Among the several obstacles for BCCI to rope a big name for the chief selector’s role was the below-par salary which they were offering. It is pertinent to note that the chairperson of the Indian men’s selection committee gets a yearly package of INR 1 crore while the four other members of the committee get Rs 90 lakh each. The amount though is significantly low when stacked against other jobs of the men’s team which is what they have promised Agarkar to amend to convince him for the role.

Thus, Agarkar is set to get the highest salary as the chief selector. The former Mumbai cricketer was already working as a commentator and was even one of the assistant coaches of the Delhi Capitals franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL)- jobs he would have to quit to take up this role. Some reports suggest that the BCCI could offer a revised pay package with a 200 to 300 per cent hike for Agarkar while others including the one by Indian Express claims that a final call on his salary will be taken on Friday.

Meanwhile, Agarkar-led selection committee announed India’s T20I squad for the West Indies series. The team sees Hardik Pandya as the skipper with Suryakumar Yadav named as his deputy. Senior players like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli won’t feature in the series while youngsters like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Tilak Varma earned maiden India call-ups.