Ajit Agarkar has decided to part ways with the Board of Control for Cricket in India because of Rohit Sharma’s selection row and differences with CoE head VVS Laxman. He didn’t attend the crucial BCCI meeting in Mumbai, with all the stakeholders making their presence felt. He was given the option of joining the meeting online, but he refused. BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia spoke in his favour, but other officials were not pleased and felt he shouldn’t have missed the important discussion.

While he was ready to continue till the 2027 ODI World Cup in South Africa, the change in BCCI’s stance forced him to seek an exit. The Indian Cricket Board believes in consistency, and Agarkar’s proven track record would have worked in his favour, but the relationship between the two parties turned frosty for several reasons.

Rohit Sharma’s future

The team management and the selectors decided to look beyond Rohit Sharma after the Lord’s ODI, and the veteran was also informed. Pragyan Ojha, who is one of the selectors and a close friend of Rohit, was given the task of informing the batter about the new development. Rohit was not happy and spoke to a BCCI administrator, accusing the chairman of selectors of treating him unfairly.

The BCCI publicly backed Rohit and dismissed the reports of his retirement, leading to fallout with Agarkar.

“That was the day when Agarkar felt that it would be tough for him to continue. He knew that there would be issues with big names in the future and he wouldn’t be allowed to work independently,” a senior BCCI official privy to the development told PTI.

Agarkar is renowned for honesty as he only thinks about the betterment of the team. The BCCI wanted him to go easy on Rohit Sharma, while he felt that Yashasvi Jaiswal needed atleast 20 ODIs to get ready for the World Cup.

Rohit’s backers felt he was scoring runs in every third ODI, which is not bad, but Agarkar felt that there was no guarantee of his success for the Rainbow Nation.

Agarkar was not ready to give the selection calls into the hands of administrators, who were adamant on backing megastars.

Differences with VVS Laxman

Although VVS Laxman and Ajit Agarkar played together for the Indian team, the differences cropped up when it came to policy decisions on injuries and the scheduling of India A matches.

“VVS Laxman wanted to win at all costs, and his hunger was no less than Virat Kohli or Sourav Ganguly. He wanted to play the best eleven in every match,” a former coach said.

Agarkar found it surprising that the decision-makers were willing to send the best team for the Asian Games, where cricket is not even the top bracket of sports.

In the previous edition, Ruturaj Gaikwad led the Indian team to success as the top players were busy in the ODI World Cup. This time, Shubman Gill will be without  Shreyas Iyer, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Ishan Kishan, and Washington Sundar in the ODI series against the West Indies.

The second Test between India A and Australia A will clash with the Irani Cup, while India A’s three Tests against New Zealand A will overlap with T20Is and ODIs.

The CoE looks after the schedule of India A matches. There was no timeline given for the centrally contracted injured players. Laxman didn’t like the critics targeting the Centre of Excellence over the growing injury list.

By the time Agarkar decided against attending the review meeting, the situation was already out of hand, and his exit was sealed.