Former Indian pacer Venkatesh Prasad, who was the chairman of the BCCI’s junior selection committee since September 2015, resigned from his post. Prasad played an important role to make a good Indian U-19 squad that won the 2018 ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup.
As a chairman of the BCCI junior selection committee, Prasad was measuring the skills, attitude, agility and fitness of the youth cricketers. In his term, India U-19 reached twice in the final of the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup, where they won the crown in this year.
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BCCI’s acting president CK Khanna confirmed the news and told TOI, “I spoke to Prasad and asked him to reconsider his decision. But he is firm and wants to move on. A thorough gentleman, Prasad’s contribution as a selector is immense and we at BCCI are proud of his achievements. We wish him all the best.”
Prasad is wishing to return as a coach and his present BCCI post is becoming a barrier as that was entering into BCCI’s conflict of interest clause. It was the reason for Prasad’s recent resignation. Talking about that, Prasad said, “I understand the conflict of interest clause and so I have resigned. I am weighing my options in coaching and will reveal my next assignment in due course.”
According to the BCCI’s conflict of interest clause, “Cricketers appointed as coaches of Indian teams or national selectors shall not be associated with any private coaching academies during their tenure.”
After taking retirement from the international and domestic cricket, Prasad began his coaching career. Under his coaching, India U-19 cricket team was runner-up in the 2006 ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup, where they had lost against Pakistan in the low-scoring final.
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After the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup, Prasad had served as a bowling coach of Indian cricket team till October 2009. Under his tenure, India had won the inaugural T20 World Cup.
Speaking about his experience as a chairman of the BCCI’s junior selection committee, Prasad remarked an exciting journey. He told, “It was a huge challenge but an exciting one. I love travelling and have logged thousands of miles across the country. It wasn’t easy watching so many matches where the key was to be alert and observant. We had to assess players on a lot of factors and I couldn’t afford to be lax.”
Talking about giving opportunities to the young cricketers, Prasad said, “I always discussed and debated with my colleagues on the need to give youngsters as many opportunities as possible. It is important to keep their hopes alive because many of them could be late bloomers and may represent the country in the next 2-3 years. I’m glad we tried out a lot of players in various tournaments over the past couple of years.”
