Put them in their place - Former coach Purnima Rau fumes over power hungry cricketers
Former Indian women cricketer and coach of the national team, Purnima Rau has lambasted the culture of the women’s cricket team. Calling it a rot, Rau in a fiery interview to news18 has suggested that every single person who is hungry after power has to be thrown out for the system to heal.
“Former players have been doing it for ages. When you get a little bit of power, everything else goes out of the window. It is infectious,” said Rau.
Alleging that coaches are easy targets in the current system, Rau argued that the culture of coaching sacking is being encouraged by people inside the administration.
“Coaches are taken for granted. There seems to be no respect for us. It is a rot and everybody is responsible. The players, administrators, support staff, everyone. Now it has come to a stage where it is affecting the game.”
Stating that the people with vested interest need to be weeded out of the system, Rau urged that someone in the position of power has to be proactive about rebuilding the entire system.
“Put the players in their places, put the former cricketers in their places. Ask them to work for a few months without being paid. Let them identify amongst these people who are genuine without any vested interests,” he added.
It must be noted that Purnima Rau was the last woman head coach of the national team. She was ousted just a couple of months before the 2017 World Cup. Following his removal, Tushar Arothe took over from her with Ramesh Powar and WV Raman being his successors. Powar was removed from the post after a fall-out with Mithali Raj in 2018 as the reign was handed over to WV Raman.
