W.V. Raman writes to Ganguly, seeks to clarify stand

A day after being replaced as the India women’s team head coach, W.V. Raman has written to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly, expressing the desire to explain his perspective on his unceremonious ouster.

Raman, the former India opening batsman who has more than two decades of experience as coach, had been in charge of the national women’s cricket team for two and a half years.

On Thursday, after being one of the eight candidates to have been interviewed by the Cricket Advisory Committee, Raman was replaced with Ramesh Powar.

Mud-slinging

Ever since the baton has been passed on to Powar, a section of women’s cricket community has indulged in mud-slinging exercise about Raman. As a result, The Hindu understands that Raman has preferred to approach the BCCI offering his availability should the Board desire to seek details from him.

Both Raman and Ganguly remained unavailable for comment.

While a section of veterans in Indian women’s cricket fraternity has been against appointment of male coaches, Raman is understood to have been involved in a dispute with newly-appointed selection committee headed by Neetu David.

Controversial

The squad selection for the recent series against South Africa, India’s first since the last year’s T20 World Cup final, was controversial to say the least, leading to murmurs of bias towards and against certain individuals.

Interestingly, Raman had taken over from Powar in December 2018 since the latter’s tenure was cut short after his public fall-out with veteran batter Mithali Raj.