BCCI appoints the new head coach of Women's Cricket team

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officially removed Purnima Rau as the head coach of the Indian women’s team cricket.Instead of her, they appointed former Baroda left-handed batsman Tushar Arothe as the new coach and he will take charge of the women’s cricket team to the upcoming ODI World cup, which will take part take part in England from June 24 to July 23. This peculiar decision by the BCCI made Purnima Rau very upset.

“I don’t know where I have gone wrong. They have again sacked me without any reason. The BCCI did not have the decency to inform me about my removal as coach. I got to know from someone else. It is very insulting,’’ said to Telangana Today on Thursday.

She indicated that the same thing happened to her when she played for the Indian team. She also revealed that she already had a plan of quitting after the 2017 ICC World Cup. “As a player I was victimised and the same thing is being repeated as coach. I was preparing the team and we stood a good chance in the World Cup in England. In fact, I would have quit after the World Cup as I wanted the new coach ready for the T20 World Cup, which is four years from now.’’

Purnima felt very bad for the BCCI’s act for removing her and she said that she’s the only successful coach right now.  The 50-year-old said that “If you look at the recent performances of the Indian team, it was one of the best in recent times. We beat the top teams in the world, including Australia in the T20 series where for the first time, Indian women beat the home team two years ago. Then we won the Asian T20 championship and also the World Cup qualifying tournament in Sri Lanka this year where we emerged champions. Apart from that, we won the series against big teams like New Zealand, Sri Lanka and West Indies, both in T20 and one-dayers. Perhaps, I’m the only successful coach to be shown the door.’’

She also quoted that, “I was made the coach in 2014 in the Lanka series and then I went as a coach to the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in 2015, after that I was removed. Sudha Shah took over as coach for the South African and England series. The team didn’t do well and I was brought back against New Zealand and we won the series. We went to Australia and won the T20 series. They have insulted me. There is no explanation and I am out. I have not asked for any contract and I worked with measly amount as coach of the Indian team’’.

Purnima eventually blamed Diana Fram Edulji who’s currently the Committee of Administrators (COA) in the BCCI for this unfair act against her. “With Diana being there, I expected a fair result as she played a fair amount of the game. She has been vindictive always. I don’t know what is Lodha Committee all about. But it is injustice as far as I’m concerned. She has never done any good for women’s cricket in the country. She was very vindictive even during her playing days”.

On the ahead of the World Cup, Indian women’s team is yet to play a quadrangular series against South Africa, Ireland and Zimbabwe in May and Tushar Arothe will lead them.