Ex-India women’s coach Tushar Arothe: Get rid of godmothers

Tushar Arothe. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Markande

Former India women's team coach Tushar Arothe has said that WV Raman should have been retained as the coach. He has also come down heavily on the national selection committee.

The BCCI recently re-appointed Ramesh Powar as the women's team coach after his contract was not renewed in 2018 due to a fallout with star player Mithali Raj.

"WV should have been given another chance. He was with the Indian women's team for one-and-a-half years and one year was lost in the Covid-19 pandemic. There was no activity during that period. The team which he got for the South Africa series, where we lost the T20 and ODI series in March, was because of the selectors' mess. It's wasn't WV's mistake,"Arothe told mid-day from Baroda on Tuesday.

Youngsters losing out

Arothe too had applied for the coach's position but was not shortlisted for the interview conducted by the Cricket Advisory Committee comprising S Madan Lal (chairman), Sulakshana Naik and RP Singh.

According to Arothe, the Indian team, comprising seniors and promising youngsters, are unable to unlock their complete potential due to lack of vision of the national selection committee headed by Neetu David.

WV Raman

"Selection is a major concern as selectors have no vision for the team. They had no business in dropping Taniya Bhatia [wicketkeeper], Shikha Pandey [all-rounder] and Shafali Verma [opener] against South Africa in the ODI series. They were playing after 12 months and the selectors said that the players were given rest," fumed Arothe, 54.

The other major issue is the influence and interference of former women's cricketers, which he termed as ‘godmothers'. "BCCI should listen to the coach, not the players. In women's cricket, things don't reach the BCCI secretary because the godmothers are very active. These past cricketers don't know what happens on the ground. Players narrate something to their godmothers which is different [from the actual scenario], so these people [former players] should be kept away," said Arothe, who scored 6,105 runs and took 225 wickets with his off-spin in 114 first-class games for Baroda.

Agenda-driven selectors

Arothe claimed the selectors were often driven by agenda during his 15-month tenure from April 2017 to August 2018. "What about accountability of players? Nobody is checking whether they are performing or not. I still remember, I was the only person to carry every player's performances of the last three to four series. The selectors had no data with them. They just came with an agenda to pick some player and drop someone without any solid reason," said Arothe.

The Indian women's team will tour England for a one-off Test, three ODIs and as many T20I games, starting next month.

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