Chetan Sharma Zee Media TV sting: A timeline of Sharma's tumultuous reign as the BCCI chief selector

It was in December 2020 that a cricket advisory committee led by former Indian cricketer Madal Lal selected Chetan Sharma as the chairman of the senior men's selection committee. As per the BCCI constitution, the candidate with the most Test caps was awarded the chief selector position.

During Chetan's tenure, India failed to reach the knock-out stage in the 2021 edition of the T20 World Cup, lost the World Test Championships final and crashed out of the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia. Sharma and his team were panned for timid selection choices which ultimately led to poor performances on the field. 

After India's disastrous performance in last year's T20 World Cup, BCCI sacked the senior national selection committee led by Chetan Sharma. 

Sharma (North zone), Harvinder Singh (Central Zone), Sunil Joshi (South Zone), and Debasish Mohanty (East Zone) have had the shortest stint as senior national selectors in recent times.

After a tumultuous reign as the chief selector and the subsequent sacking, Sharma surprised most in the cricketing circuit by re-applying for the top position. To everyone's surprise, BCCI accepted his candidature and he was granted his old position back. 

Alongside him, India opener Shiv Sundar Das, former India pacers Subroto Banerjee and Salil Ankola and former Tamil Nadu batter Sridharan Sharath were included in the committee. 
 

When asked by the Zee undercover reporter if players took injections to propel themselves to reach the minimum fitness requirements, Chetan Sharma replied in affirmative. He said: 

"Maybe 10-15 per cent do that and they ask us to let them play but medical science does not let them. Players obviously want to play; they do not want to miss any matches. There are only handful of such case. However, some of them, they just take injections, on their own and they say they are fine."

In the sting operation by Zee News,  Sharma said, "Kohli was clearly told by the BCCI president to re-think his decision to quit the T20I captaincy. We all told him to reconsider his decision. But he lied to the media when he said that he got no such suggestion from anyone on the board."

It was only a matter of time before Sharma resigned as the chief selector. The pandora's box of secrets revealed by him in the Zee sting operation made it untenable for BCCI to continue with him. On Friday, February 17, Sharma tendered his resignation, bringing an end to a disturbing period in Indian cricket.