Vengsarkar relents after Pawar intervenes

Chairman of Selection Committee Dilip Vengsarkar is going to Bangalore to select the team for Australia tour just a day after it seemed that he had made up his mind to quit.

"I just spoke to Mr Pawar. He has assured me that we will have a meeting on 7 or 8 (December) either on Mumbai or in Pune and he will sort out all the issues," Dilip Vengsarkar said on Tuesday evening.

"Kal mein ja raha hoon because he has assured me everything will be taken care of (I am going tomorrow because he (Pawar) has assured me everything will be taken care of," Vengsarkar said.

After a day of high drama and intrigue the storm finally blew over or so it seems. Vengsarkar will chair the meeting to select India's Test squad to Australia and clearly the words of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sharad Pawar have comforted him.
"Board is meeting on 16th of this month. Probably we will be able to take up a final view on all this and I feel we will be able to resolve this issue," Sharad Pawar had said on Tuesday.
So are the warring parties coming together and what happens to the angry e-mail sent by Vengsarkar to Sharad Pawar where he said, "I am appalled at the way the BCCI has treated its selectors. The recent gag order has not only humiliated us for doing selfless service to Indian cricket but also shown us in a very poor light."

"Another issue is that BCCI secretary, Mr Niranjan Shah even after finalising dates for selection of teams, changes them as per his whims and fancies The recent fiasco of shifting the selection committee meeting from Kolkata to Bangalore on 5th December shows his high-handedness. I was aghast when Mr Shashank Monahar told me over the telephone yesterday that Mr Bindra is the man behind all these happenings against the selectors," Vengsarkar wrote.
"I would be glad to continue as the Chairman of Selection Committee but ONLY IF the restrictions imposed on me are revoked unconditionally and I am compensated for agreeing to not to write the columns in the newspapers," he wrote.

But after days of hard bargaining and tough negotiations, the deadlock seems to have been broken. All it took was an assurance from BCCI chief Sharad Pawar to soften Vengsarkar who gave up on his demand of revoking the seven-point guideline and head to Bangalore for the selection meeting.