The chief selector issue isn’t over yet. A working patch has been applied till the team for the Australia tour is selected (on Wednesday). That is the immediate issue. The bigger problem is festering, yet. Some of that will either be decided in a private conference between Dilip Vengsarkar and Board of Control for Cricket in India chief Sharad Pawar, as Vengsarkar has requested—there is a possibility that he will meet the chief on December 14—or one has to wait till the December 16 working committee meeting of the Board. That, as Pawar has informed the media, should decide it all.
But was all this hungama really necessary? Was it avoidable? There are several versions to it, but in the overall analysis it seems that much has to be done by the Board itself to get rid of glitches that cause these unnecessary disturbances.
As it stands today, Vengsarkar is being forced to watch the entire proceedings of this third Test versus Pakistan in Bangalore, because he has this important responsibility of deciding who to send on the arduous Australia tour. He is being accompanied by South Zone selector Venkatapathy Raju.
Things had suddenly flashed big on media screens when he returned from Kolkata, midway through the second Test, when his demands for scrapping of the Board’s seven-point guidelines for selectors was turned down. A clause in these guidelines made it clear that he was not allowed to write newspaper columns. The Board also did not quite accept the fact that he was speaking to the media. That too was a no-no, said the Board. It was a full gag.
It should not have come to a boil, after all. And it would not have, had Vengsarkar at least been a little more diplomatic in his columns. It could also have been avoided, considering the fact that the Board very well knew Vengsarkar as an eminent ex-cricketer, as well as a media commentator and columnist for 15 or more years. Also, at the time of appointing Vengsarkar as chairman of selectors in November last year, the Board was aware (even if we assume that Vengsarkar wasn’t, at that point) of the media gag clause that existed vis-à-vis selectors and the chief selector.
The general consensus growing is of the middle path that both could have taken, in the interest of Indian cricket, and considering that Team India are set to go on a rather difficult tour.
So, while Vengsarkar wasn’t warned of the stipulation in the rule-book about the media by the Board, Vengsarkar, on his part, acted in a generally irresponsible manner in speaking his mind to the Press, and in being less than collected in his feelings as expressed in the newspaper column. Adding to that was his initial refusal to stop his columns. That’s where the issue flew off the handle.
Vengsarkar was writing for vernacular dailies like Sakal (Marathi) and Amar Ujala (Hindi) apart from contributing to syndicated columns.
When Vengsarkar issued the ‘remove the gag or I quit’ slogan, there was little bargaining power that remained in his hand. Of course the Board refused to budge. It had its feet firmly on the ground. Thereafter the situation was over to experts, as they have spoke, and to rumours.

... contd.