Board of Control for Cricket in India chief Sharad Pawar today pushed at an “amicable solution” to the impasse with chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar saying that his demand for compensation was “legitimate” and will be looked into. In return, Vengsarkar attended a closed-door meeting with BCCI’s Chief Administrative Officer Prof Ratnakar Shetty in Mumbai today, before saying that “in the interest of Indian cricket” he would proceed to Bangalore tomorrow. He flies to Bangalore in the morning.

“The president personally intervened and softened the board’s stance. Therefore, I feel that I should go to Bangalore and first chair the selection meeting to pick the team for Australia. I will speak to the president once again and request him for a meeting where my demands are taken into consideration,” Vengsarkar said.

For now, the five selectors, including Vengsarkar, will assemble in Bangalore to name the 16-member Test squad for Australia and the team for the third Test.

The main issue remains unresolved, though. Pawar has promised that the compensation question will be taken up at the Board’s working committee meeting in Mumbai on December 16, leaving no room for Vengsarkar to re-negotiate. It was victory for Pawar in the balancing act.

Vengsarkar later said that he has had a talk with Pawar and that the BCCI chief has agreed to meet him a tomorrow or the day after.

The issue took a bit of doing on both sides. “I have been exchanging SMSs with him (Vengsarkar) and we will have to see if he is there (at the meeting) tomorrow,” Pawar had said to mediapersons in New Delhi earlier in the day. That was when Pawar presented a changed posture of the Board, and it seemed that he was in a conciliatory mood. “Rupees 40 lakh is a big amount, and we have to see if we can compensate some of it,” said Pawar, adding that the demands made by the chief selector were “legitimate”.

... contd.