has hailed the appointment of Ramesh Powar as a national selector, who has replaced Ajit Agarkar as the West Zone representative in the selection panel headed by Pragyan Ojha.
Shiv Sunder Das, RP Singh, and Ajay Ratra are other members.
Off-spinner Powar played 16 ODIs and claimed 24 wickets when Chappell was coach of India. The two Tests that Powar featured in (against Bangladesh in 2007) were after the Australian ended his term.
“Ramesh was a very intelligent cricketer and I have no doubt that he will be an excellent selector. I am very pleased for him,” Chappell told mid-day from Adelaide on Tuesday.
Powar was head coach of the India women’s team apart from coaching Mumbai and Gujarat in domestic cricket.
It can be recalled that Powar, now 48, was invited by Cricket (CA) to train their young spinners on the recommendation of Chappell in April 2018. “It was Greg Chappell who recommended my name to CA. I would like to thank him and Troy Cooley, head coach of the national performance program, for giving me this opportunity,” Powar had said then.
A rewind to 2006 reveals that cynics were skeptical when chubby Powar was part of fitness-keen Chappell’s plans. “David Boon was a chubby chap who was a very successful cricketer. Talent comes in different shapes and sizes, you can’t judge a book by its cover. Ramesh, I think, is a very, very good cricketer. But he has to be aware of the fact that he will be criticised for wrong reasons if he does not get in the shape he can be in. I don’t care what his records say, he has taken some very important wickets for us and has bowled some really important spells for us in one-day cricket, and when the opportunity arises I am sure he will do the same thing in ” Chappell had told mid-day in 2006.