India’s campaign during the 2018 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in West Indies was hit by a big controversy when reports emerged of Mithali Raj and team coach Ramesh Powar are not seeing eye to eye. The fissures emerged when Mithali, a senior batter, was dropped from India’s tournament opener with Powar later citing her slow strike-rate as the reason behind his call.
Mithali was alternated with Taniya Bhatia in India’s playing XI and the seasoned campaigner responded with two half-centuries. Despite that, she was again dropped from the eleven for the semi-final clash against England which India lost.
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An irked Mithali shot a letter to the BCCI accusing Ramesh Powar of discrimination. Eventually, upon returning to India, separate meetings were held involving T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur, Mithali, Powar and BCCI officials.
Following that, Powar’s contract wasn’t renewed.
Vinod Rai, who headed the Committee of Administrators (CoA) that ran Indian cricket for almost three years, in his book Not Just a Nightwatchman – My Innings in the BCCIwrites that Mithali claimed to have been kept in the dark regarding the call to drop her from the all-important semifinal.
“Mithali had expressed her deep anguish at how she had been treated by the coach. She felt that more than her being benched in the semi-final game, it was the way in which she was being treated by the coach that distressed her,” Rai was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.
“Harmanpreet, as the team captain, was clear that the decision had been collectively taken to play the winning combination. In this decision, the team selector and coach had been involved. She, of course, was not aware of when this news was conveyed to Mithali,” he wrote.
Mithali though felt her exclusion was unfair and the manner in which she came to know about it was humiliating.
“On the other hand, Mithali felt that besides her exclusion not being justified, the manner in which it was conveyed to her had been most humiliating. She said that she had been kept in the dark about the decision and it was just before the two captains went for the toss that the coach had informed her,” Rai wrote.
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