BCCI secretary justifies move to pay the selectors

N Srinivasan, the newly appointed secretary of the BCCI, has said the recent move to have a paid selection panel - the first time in the board's history - will ensure complete accountability to the board. Srinivasan, formerly the board's treasurer, was also appointed the convener of selectors and attended the meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday to pick the Indian squad for the first two Tests against Australia.

"You now have a professional selection committee that is paid and therefore, completely accountable to the board," Srinivasan told the Hindustan Times. "There is a view that the BCCI will therefore, now have a greater hold over the selectors.

"The idea behind this was that the selectors spend so much time for the board, that they should be reimbursed."

The members of the new panel, headed by the former Indian opener Kris Srikkanth, will be paid Rs 25 lakh (US$53,625) per year.

Srinivasan also said the board will stress on improving cricket facilities across the country and that the state associations were being encouraged to spend more on improving infrastructure.

"An opportunity, perhaps, is to make facilities more user-friendly," he said. "We would like to improve facilities, increase the number of academies and take the game to the rural parts of the country in a more complete fashion. There are new stadia coming up in Hyderabad, Nagpur, Orissa. We will see the creation of more and more facilities for cricket."

When asked whether the BCCI would consider going public, he said: "This is not a corporate entity. We are an organisation for the development of the game. That's the way we see ourselves."