After Purnima Rau, another former India women’s team coach has come forward and bashed the team culture which has resulted in a chaotic situation in women’s cricket. WV Raman's sacking and consequent appointment of Ramesh Powar put the Indian women's cricket in frenzy and it has resulted in several ex-coaches coming forward and describing the brittle camaraderie between the members of the women’s team.
Speaking about his tenure as the coach of the Indian team, Tushar Arothe disclosed that players didn’t get well together and that was the reason behind a lot of team gelling sessions and bonding exercises which did help during his reign.
“I can’t really talk about the current scenario, but can certainly talk about my time as the coach. In my first assignment as a coach, in South Africa, I didn’t see a great bond in the girls. We used to focus a lot on team gelling and team-building exercises. So it did reap benefits for the team then,” Arothe was quoted as saying during an exclusive interview with news 18.
Internal rifts have been quite prevalent in the women’s circuit. During Ramesh Powar’s previous tenure with the Indian time, his relation soured with Mithali Raj after she was dropped from the playing XI in the 2018 T20 World Cup semi-final.
While Raj bashed Powar publicly, junior members Smiriti Mandhana and the then T20 Harmanpreet Kaur wrote a letter to BCCI asking them to continue with Powar as the coach of the national team. Arothe felt that it’s now up to the girls to make sure that they display a good camaraderie on the field.
“I think for the common good of the team, the girls will have to display that camaraderie every time they step on the field. Senior players again have a big role to play, they need to lift the team up now,” Arothe said.