Former India women’s head coach Tushar Arothe has come in support of WV Raman whose contract as the head coach of the national women’s team was not extended in favour of Ramesh Powar. Arothe felt that it was very hard on Raman as it was under his tutelage that India reached the final of the T20 World Cup last year in Australia.
“Well, I believe there were over 35 applications for the post. Then, they shortlisted it to eight. I don’t really know what the criteria was or how did they scrutinise the applications. I personally think it is a little unfair on Raman,” Arothe was quoted as saying by News 18.
Raman took on the mantle in December 2018 after Powar was shown the door after a fall-out with then ODI skipper Mithali Raj. Powar’s return to the fold might go onto benefit India in the long run but the trend of the management not sticking with a particular coach has been quite prevalent in the last few years.
“Well, we had all heard about the problem between Powar and Mithali Raj during the World Cup in West Indies, 2018. But now it’s a fresh start and now someone who has a stronghold in the team, should intervene and take a stock of the whole situation and make sure that both the parties are on the same page this time around,” Arothe said.
In 2017 Purnima Rau was ousted just before the 50 overs World Cup where India lost in the final against England. Arothe who succeeded Rau, resigned from the position in July 2018 handing over the reign to Powar. It was in December 2018 that Raman took over.
The Indian women’s team didn’t play any professional cricket for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in their rusty performance against South Africa at home. They lost both the ODI and the T20I series but Arothe feels that it was mainly due to the lack of practice.
“If you look at his tenure, he took the girls to the final of the T20 World Cup, and most of the other period under him, went in lockdown due to Covid-19. So once can’t really judge his tenure,” quipped Arothe.
Also, if you’re looking at the South Africa series, these girls were playing a lot of cricket already, but the Indians girls were playing after a year and were rusty. So he had no chance to work with the girls, and there was no camp. So they could have given one more year to WV,” the former coach added.