There is a report running that a rift is rising between the Indian women cricketers and the head coach Tushar Arothe, since their shocking defeat against Bangladesh in the final of 2018 Women’s T20 Asia Cup.
According to a report in ESPNcricinfo, a meeting was organised on June 27, where Indian women’s ODI captain Mithali Raj and T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur were present along with the members of SC appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) for BCCI, Vinod Rai and Diana Edulji. Moreover, women’s selection committee chief Hemalata Kala and team manager Trupti Bhattacharya also attended that meeting but the head coach Tushar Arothe wasn’t even invited to that meeting.
The meeting was called after a recent Asia Cup review meeting that was held by BCCI on July 13 at Bengaluru where Arothe was present along with BCCI General Manager Cricket Operations Saba Karim and interim secretary Amitabh Choudhary.
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According to the ESPNcricinfo report, there was a very fine condition inside the team since their 2017 ICC Women’s World Cup journey, where Indian women performed impressively and finished as a runner-up after losing a very close final against the hosts England women.
After that, Indian women also performed well in their South African tour where they won both the limited-overs series in an emphatic style.
However, since then, the Indian women’s cricket team’s performance has slipped down as they suffered a home bilateral ODI series defeat against Australia and failing to qualify in the final of home tri-nation series where Australia women and England women also participated. However, Indian women later won a home bilateral ODI series against England.
The Indian women’s cricket team went to the recently concluded Women’s T20I Asia Cup as a favourite who hadn’t lost a game in the all previous editions of Women’s Asia Cup history (including the ODI and T20I). During the tournament, the Indian women’s cricket team dominated in most cases, except in the double meetings against Bangladesh women including the final of the tournament, where Indian women’s suffered defeats in both meetings.
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According to ESPNcricinfo, the women cricketers are not happy with the newly formed training schedules and methods. Despite being conveyed to the coaching staff prior to the Asia Cup, it wasn’t changed.
On the other hand, another dissatisfaction was, the new sensation 17-year-old Jemimah Rodrigues didn’t get an opportunity during the Asia Cup while the other team members got at least one opportunity during that tournament. Young Rodrigues, who made her international cricketing debut in this year, was in the very good form in the domestic season.
However, the coach was unhappy with her training and practice match performances and thus the decision was taken to bench her in the whole tournament with the consultation of tournament captain Harmanpreet Kaur and vice-captain Smriti Mandhana.
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However, nothing has clarified about the news as BCCI has asked the players and other support staffs to stay away from the media.
