Former Indian off-spinner Ramesh Powar has recently become the head coach of Indian women’s cricket team. After taking the new role, the first time he faced media where he shared some important thoughts.
Currently, he is busy to observe the players in the ongoing 2018–19 Senior Women’s T20 Challenger Trophy, participated by India Red, India Blue and India Green. Earlier, Powar met with the players at National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore which he felt alright.
Powar told CricketNext in an interview, “It was alright actually. Luckily I had coached Under-16, Under-19, Under-23 and senior Mumbai girls (at an individual level). So, I was in connect with the (local) coaches. They used to give me feedback that men’s cricket and women’s cricket are different. Main difference is the strength. They have different strengths. If they get their technique right then they can compensate.”
“Everyone was accessible. No one was shut. They were enthusiastic and keen to learn from me. I was keen to provide them with whatever insight I have gained over the years. It was a good interaction on the first day. Slowly they all opened up individually with respect to the issues they are facing. We are addressing those areas and we will see some difference in one month’s time.”
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Recently, Powar did the Level III coaching course from Australia. When he was asked about his biggest gain from that course, the former Indian spinner said communication – the man-management process.
Powar said on that, “Communication. Man-management is the thing. Everyone knows what technique is. It is about how you convey and get the players do things that is right for them. Because the players there were from a different country, it took me some time to convince them on certain things but luckily I was able to get through. I also learnt a few things from them like programming and planning. Their practice sessions are quite extraordinary. They use technology to the fullest effect.”
When Powar was asked about the lack of proper communication issue in the Indian women’s cricket team, the new head coach has pointed out to connect each and every girl individually to solve this problem.
Powar said, “If you connect with each and every girl individually then you will know exactly what is happening in the team. That’s what I exactly did in the first camp at the NCA in Bangalore. I will try and take them to one page because India is greater than anybody. When you represent India nothing else matters, just that flag and logo matters. That’s where I come from and I have conveyed that to them. Hopefully, they will produce some good results in the future.”
In that interview, Powar has also pointed out that the Indian women’s cricket team has their strength in skills while the top teams like Australia or England are strong in the powerful hitting. Powar wants to stick with India’s strength as he believes that the girls can go ahead successfully with this.
Powar said on this, “Our strength is skills. Our strength is not power like Australia or England. Don’t expect them to hit sixes. Our strength will always be wristwork, running between the wickets, spinners. If we stick to our strengths, try and fine tune it then I think we will do well. We saw the results in the last World Cup (in 2017) where India managed to beat good teams and played the final. It’s not about what they cannot do, but it’s about what they can do and they can do much better. The girls have been very responsive and have started doing their own preparations towards the journey.”
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Young Smriti Mandhana is currently running in a dream form with the bat as she is the highest runs scorer in the ongoing 2018 Women’s Cricket Super League (2018 KIA Super League). She has scored 421 runs in this season in 9 innings with 60.14 averages and 174.68 strike-rates, including one century and two half-centuries.
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Powar said on Mandhana’s recent performances, “She scored more than 400 runs at a strike-rate of over 170, which suggests she was hitting the ball really well. I will try to keep her in that frame of mind. I will not pressurise her that she is the most important batter of the team because maybe that sometimes plays on her mind. We will try to avoid that.”
