'I feel people with the stature of Dilip Vengsarkar should be in the selection committee.'
Former India wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer slammed the current selection committee led by MSK Prasad, labelling them as a 'Mickey Mouse selection committee'.
"Virat Kohli has a major impact (in the process) which is very good. But how are the selectors qualified? Between them, have they played about 10-12 Test matches. I didn't even know one of the selectors during the World Cup and I asked him 'who the hell he was', because he was wearing the India blazer and he said he was one of the selectors," Engineer told TOI in Pune on Thursday.
The selection committee, led by former India wicketkeeper Prasad, also comprises of Devang Gandhi, Gagan Khoda, Sarandeep Singh and Jatin Paranjpe.
He further alleged that all the selectors were doing during the World Cup in UK earlier this year, was getting India captain Kohli's wife Anushka cups of tea.
"All they were doing was getting Anushka Sharma (Kohli’s wife) cups of tea. I feel people with the stature of Dilip Vengsarkar should be in the selection committee."
The 82-year-old also came down heavily on the Supreme-Court appointed Committee Of Administrators (CoA), who were in charge of the BCCI for more than two-and-a-half years, whom he referred to as 'honeymooners'.
The CoA were in charge of the running the daily affairs of BCCI for 33 months. They were recently replaced by a new set of office bearers, including president Sourav Ganguly, after the BCCI elections last week.
"It is about time we had a cricketer who ran the board, because the CoA, in my opinion, were a complete waste of time,” Engineer added.
"They had no idea about cricket. (Diana) Edulji has played a little cricket but you need somebody who has knowledge of Test cricket, international cricket, international matches. The intention was good from the Supreme Court and the Lodha Committee, but the implementation wasn’t done properly. It was a very very wrong choice of people (appointed in the CoA).
"I read the other day that each one of them (the CoA) has pocketed Rs 3.5 crore. It’s criminal. Plus I believe they got paid thousands and thousands for attending meetings and all, I feel they were on a honeymoon. The honeymoon is over," said the wicket-keeper, who played 46 Tests for India from 1961 to 1975.
Engineer gave his firm backing to former captain Ganguly, saying under his tenure Indian cricket will improve.
"He was a dashing player, a captain who took bold decisions and I hope he does the same thing as board president."
