News: Chetan Sharma resigns as Indian men's team national selector

Chetan Sharma, the BCCI’s head selector, has resigned. This comes only days after a sting operation starring him went viral. Sharma, according to ANI, submitted his resignation to BCCI secretary Jay Shah, who accepted it. Zee Television published footage of a sting operation on Chetan on Tuesday (February 14), in which the former Indian bowler made some alarming statements. He said that ex-India captain Virat Kohli and former BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had an ego fight. “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,” a senior BCCI source told PTI. “He resigned voluntarily and wasn’t asked to resign.”

He even called Kohli a “liar” in reference to his controversial press conference before of the 2020-21 South Africa trip. In response to the top player’s claims that neither the BCCI nor Ganguly had contacted him about his leadership, Sharma was seen stating in the video: “Why did Virat say? He was going to South Africa as a captain. The press conference is about the team. There was no need to bring this topic there. The truth was that there was talk. Eight to nine people were sitting, and talk was happening. Ganguly had said (spoken to Kohli). Virat was lying. But why Virat lied, nobody knows till today. This is his personal matter. There was controversy in it – board versus player.”

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Only 4 selectors remain now

“Removing someone from captaincy is the job of selectors. We removed him from the ODI captaincy as we wanted to have one white-ball captain. This is normal procedure and even he (Kohli) knows it. After Virat announced that he was giving up the T20I captaincy, the selectors made up their minds to remove him from the ODI captaincy as well,” Sharma said in the viral video. “If you don’t include Sanju Samson, on Twitter people blow us off,” Chetan was heard saying in the video. Chetan is said to have delivered his resignation letter to BCCI Secretary Jay Shah, who has accepted his resignation. Earlier, Chetan was fired following India’s abrupt withdrawal from the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia, but he was quickly re-appointed. His departure leaves India’s selection panel of Salil Ankola, SS Das, Subroto Banerjee, and S Sharath without a new chairperson, with the BCCI yet to nominate one. Sharma, 57, represented India in 23 Tests and 65 One-Day Internationals between 1984 and 1994.