FORMER India captain and legendary Test batsman Sunil Gavaskar has hit out at the BCCI selection committee and also questioned the way captain Virat Kohli is getting to choose his team, in a column for Mid-Day.

Gavaskar questioned the way the selection committee chose the team for the upcoming tour of West Indies and even called for players of better stature to be a part of the group.

“Speaking of lame ducks, the Indian selection committee appears to be one. After the reappointment, he (captain) gets invited to the meeting for his views on the selecting the players for the team.

 By bypassing the procedure, the message that goes out is that while the players like Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik get dropped after below expectations performance, the captain continues despite much below par expectations where the team did not even reach the finals,” the stalwart wrote, taking a clear dig at the powers that Virat Kohli currently enjoys in the system.

He also raised questions about how the committee decided to continue with Virat Kohli as the skipper of the team without even holding a meeting, which is generally the norm.

“That they selected the team for West Indies without first having a meeting to select the captain brings up the question of whether Virat Kohli is the captain of the team at his or the selection committee’s pleasure.

To the best of our knowledge his (Kohli’s) appointment was till the World Cup. After that, it was incumbent on the selectors to meet even if it was for five minutes for his reappointment,” Gavaskar wrote in Mid-Day.

Finally, he also questioned the merit of the selection committee suggesting that the current committee does not have players of stature and gets bullied by the team management.

“This is probably one of the last selections for this committee as a new one will get appointed soon. Hopefully that will have players of stature who will not get bullied and be able to tell the team management that their job is to play with the team chosen by the selectors,” Gavaskar wrote.

The current selection committee is headed by MSK Prasad and comprises Sarandeep Singh, Devang Gandhi, Jatin Paranjape and Gagan Khoda. The total Test experience of this committee stands at 13 matches with Prasad having played 6. Paranjape and Khoda only played ODI cricket for India. (Extracted form Hindustan Times, New Delhi).