Coach Ramesh Powar quits after MCA fails to launch spin plan

Ramesh Powar

The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) is fast losing cricketers from its set-up. After Pravin Amre resigned from the Managing Committee and Cricket Improvement Committee earlier this month, former Mumbai and India off-spinner Ramesh Powar yesterday stepped down as spin coach of the MCA indoor academy at Bandra Kurla Complex.

Powar resigned after getting no response over his proposal to groom Mumbai spinners across all age groups. "In January, I had provided a comprehensive plan to conduct a camp for the spinners which included coaching, strategising, mental make-up and fitness. I shortlisted bowlers at the junior and senior levels where I felt there was scope of improvement and work to be done on them in the off season. The season is almost over now and it is the right time to prepare for the next one with more than five months in hand.

"Unfortunately, the plan never took off. I waited for more than three weeks for the camp to start, but it did not materialise. "With virtually no cricketing activity on at the academy, there was no point in sticking around. I am not a guy who will stick around for the salary. When my creative freedom is taken away, I did not see any point in continuing and that's why I resigned," Powar told mid-day yesterday.

Powar said his plan was to create a bench strength of spinners for Mumbai. "It is absolutely false when someone says Mumbai lacks talented spinners. There are ample of talented cricketers out there. That was the whole purpose of this camp. I was looking to work with spinners where there was enough scope to improve either technique-wise, skill-wise or fitness-wise. There were some bowlers who were not rated as spinners, but they had a spark in them. I had seen them bowl well in the nets. It was a three-week plan and the idea was to merge the shortlisted spinners from the talent hunt programme with these guys. It would have created a good pool of 25 to 30 spinners and built healthy competition in the group. I had plans to call Nilesh Kulkarni and Sairaj Bahutule (former India and Mumbai spinners) to talk about finer points. It is really disappointing that there was hardly any seriousness to pursue this camp," said Powar.

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