In the board’s working committee meeting held on Saturday, it was decided to implement the criteria of appointing a former cricketer as national selector only after he has completed 10 years of retirement from all forms of the game.

“There have been lots of incidents where selectors have known players either because they have played together or were friends. But it isn’t very healthy,” BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah said. “It was decided to have some seniority between selectors and players,” BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla explained, while former chairman of selectors Kiran More said this was simply not feasible. “Ten years is too long a gap. He would have lost touch with the game,” said More.

The committee also said that any senior selector should have played not less than 25 first class matches and should not be an office bearer of the BCCI or any of its affiliated units. The selectors will also be offered an annual salary of Rs 25 lakhs, while junior selectors will get Rs 15 lakhs and women selectors Rs. 5 lakhs.