Former India player Chetan Sharma, who was in his second term as the chief selector of the BCCI selection panel, was caught in a sting operation conducted by Zee media and many of his revelations caught the BCCI and Indian players off guard.

This resulted in a huge controversy which resulted in Sharma resigning from his position on February 17, 2023. As per a report in Indian Express, the BCCI had asked him to resign from his post after he breached his contract by divulging team information.

Sharma had talked about how Virat Kohli lied to get back at Sourav Ganguly, the former BCCI President as he believed that he was behind him being sacked as India’s ODI captain. He also talked about the equation between Virat and Rohit Sharma.

Some of his controversial claims were that players came to his house to talk about their selection and even slept in his house.

But the most controversial revelation of his in the sting operation was that Indian players were unfit and took injections to make it into the teams and pass the fitness tests. He also said that the NCA gave fitness certificates to cricketers who were even 80-90% fit. He further added that top cricketers had their own doctors outside the BCCI to prescribe them the injections which kept them fit.

BCCI chief selector Chetan Sharma resigns amid controversy over 'sting operation'

In the aftermath, it was expected that BCCI will sack Chetan Sharma from his post, but it was revealed that Sharma, who was in Kolkata for the Ranji Trophy final, is understood to have sent his resignation on Friday morning and it has been accepted immediately by the BCCI.

“He sent his resignation to BCCI secretary and that has been accepted. Now, new person will be appointed at his place,” BCCI vice president Rajeev Shukla told The Indian Express in a text message.

Apparently, Chetan Sharma had lost the trust of the BCCI and Indian team players and the report stated that few in the team management felt Sharma had crossed the line in their communication to the BCCI on Wednesday.

From there on his position was untenable, especially after he accused a few of the players of taking injections to stay fit. “It was just a matter of time. Once the players lost the trust, it was always going to be difficult for Sharma to continue,” a source in the know said.

After Sharma’s resignation, the selection panel’s strength has once again come down to four. Subroto Banerjee, Salil Ankola, S Sharath, and SS Das are the ones in place and all four took charge only in January.

(Indian Express report)