The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (COA) has apparently decided to go back to the old system of a five-member selection panel to pick Indian cricket teams.

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However, the five selectors will not be picked on the zonal basis, as was the case earlier, but merit will be the criteria and as per norms put forward by Justice Lodha panel. Currently, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has a three-member selection panel.

According to sources in the COA, the consensus was reached after nearly all the state cricket associations told them that "a big country like India cannot be handled by merely three selectors".

The decision in this regard is expected to be taken during COA's meeting with all state associations of the Board on June 25.

With almost a year gone since SC judgement came to validate Justice Lodha panel reforms, COA is eager to see some progress in this direction. And that's why the contentious issue of "one state one vote" is also likely to come up for discussion during this meeting.

"The COA will discuss the implementation of Lodha report in various states. And it has open mind on 'one state one vote' for a simple reason that Mumbai and Mizoram cannot be put in same bracket," said the source.

The catch, however, is that COA may not include all these discussions in the "status report" that would be submitted to SC before July 14 hearing. "The COA's assurance doesn't guarantee anything. Whatever comes, comes from SC," said a source.

Some states have rejected any discussion with COA as they feel that the matter is still being heard in the SC, for which the next hearing is on July 14.

Among units to have moved court on this issue are Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Mumbai, Bengal, Baroda, Saurashtra and govt controlled bodies. All of them are contesting that SC orders are difficult to implement.

Out of the 31 state bodies, only Vidarbha and Tripura have amended their constitution as per the SC orders. COA has till date only approved Vidarbha, while Tripura's case is under scrutiny. As per SC orders, COA may well tell other states that BCCI will only release grants to Vidarbha at the moment.

COA meeting with states will be followed by a Special General Meeting (SGM) on the next day i.e. June 26.

Window opens for Shastri

Despite protests by his colleagues, BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary has agreed to extend the deadline for submission of applications for the post of head coach for Indian team late on Friday.

This will pave way for former players like Ravi Shastri, who has been considered first choice of skipper Virat Kohli. As per the communication, the candidates who have applied earlier need not reapply and will be included in the final list of applicants.

This might upset calculations of all those who were backing former India opener Virender Sehwag for the post.

"This is absurd. How can we not select any candidate when interviews were called in for. This certainly is to favour some group or individual," said a BCCI official.