BCCI reminds selectors not to write columns

Determined to ensure that its gag order is not defied, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has sent a reminder to the national selectors asking them not to write columns in newspapers as per its constitutional provisions.

"Yes, a message has been sent to the selectors not to write columns," BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah said from Rajkot.

Shah's message follows the Board's move to seek an explanation from chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar why he continues to write newspaper columns, including in BCCI chief's Sharad Pawar's family-owned newspaper Sakal, despite a gag order being in place.

Asked whether Vengsarkar replied to that message, Shah said, "You see these things take some time."

A former selector revealed that as per the constitution of the Board, no selector can lend his name to a newspaper column and expressed surprise how Vengsarkar was allowed to flout the clause.

"It's all in the constitution. I don't know how he was allowed to write a column," he said on condition of anonymity.