Diana Edulji: Treat women on par with men

Diana Edulji

Former India women's captain and member of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), Diana Edulji lashed out at the BCCI for not treating the senior women's cricket team on par with the men's as far as appointment of the support staff is concerned.

As per the new BCCI constitution, the support staff for the men's and women's teams must be selected by the national selectors. While the procedure was followed to the 'T' as far as appointing support staff for Virat Kohli's team was concerned recently, it hasn't been the same for the women's team.

The National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore has been sending its coaches with the women's team on a series-to-series basis. This stop-gap arrangement system adopted by the NCA hasn't gone down well with Edulji. "The constitution of the BCCI, which was passed by the Supreme Court, states the support staff of the Indian [senior] men's and women's teams are to be selected by the [national] selectors after following due process. We followed the due process with the men's team by putting up an advertisement and calling applicants.

Process vital

"The interviews were conducted by the selectors. Then, why are they appointing coaches from the NCA for the women's team? There is no discrimination in the constitution where the men's team will function in a certain way and women's team in another manner. Process has to be followed - come out with an advertisement for the posts to be filled up and call for applications," Edulji told mid-day yesterday. India are set to play three ODIs in Antigua and five T20Is v WI in St Lucia and Guyana, starting from November 1 to 20.

Fix this issue

It is learnt that the NCA was contemplating to send one of their coaches for the West Indies tour in place of women's team fielding coach Biju George, whose contract ends on October 31. "Why should we send someone else [for the West Indies tour]? Why was the due process not followed? I have always maintained that there is no [provision for] ad-hoc thing in the BCCI constitution. It is my bible and I cannot go against the constitution which has been passed by the Supreme Court. So, rules and regulations have to be followed when it comes to women's cricket too," Edulji said.

Applications for a performance analyst for the women's team were invited a couple of months ago and the deadline to apply was September 20. The team are still without a strength and conditioning coach. The team management has made a request to appoint a psychologist a while ago. "The team asked for it so why is it not been provided yet? As far as I am concerned, women's cricket should be treated at par with the men's team and the BCCI's in-charge should show the same urgency in the team's needs," Edulji signed off.

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