Mithali Raj's manager calls Harmanpreet Kaur 'manipulative, lying, immature'

India women today played the semi-final of the Women’s World T20 2018 against England. The game made news even before a ball was bowled. The young team with a bold skipper-coach duo decided to drop a legend on the big day. Harmanpreet Kaur and Ramesh Powar dropped Mitali Raj from the crucial game and when India couldn’t win the game all hell broke loose.

They were served with a lot of criticism from all quarters as people couldn’t understand this decision. Mithali who had been a consistent scorer for India in the tournament many felt would’ve certainly made a difference and thus keeping her on the bench was a bizarre decision. Mithali’s manager, Annisha Gupta was just too furious to hold it back and took to Twitter to not just criticize Harmanpreet but also called her names.

Team believes in politics not sport

“Unfortunately @BCCIWomen believes in politics not sport. After witnessing what @M_Raj03 ‘s experience could do in IndvIre it’s shocking that they went with what pleases @ImHarmanpreet -a manipulative, lying, immature, undeserving captain,” Gupta tweeted after the conclusion of the match that knocked India out of the tournament.

It was from an unverified account but Gupta confirmed her comments and said that she was not sure what was happening inside the team. She was clearly miffed with the way Mithali was treated despite being a performer.

“I’d like to say that I don’t know what is going on on the inside but, now that the matches are being telecast, we can see who is performing and who is not,” Gupta was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. “And we can see the kind of treatment that Mithali has received despite her brilliant performance and despite showing stability and consistency. The kind of treatment she has received is completely uncalled for and there is something deeper than we need to look at than just the statements that have been coming out.

“There are statements coming out that they wanted to give younger cricketers a chance but you don’t drop your senior-most, most experienced players in a semi-final against a country like England. It goes beyond giving the youngsters a chance,” she added.

Top heavy India crumble

In the match, it was Harmanpreet who won the toss and decided to bat first. The Indian women got off to a good start but being a top-heavy side and thin thereafter saw them crumble from 89/3 to 112/10. The Women in Blue couldn’t even bat the full quota of overs and it wasn’t really a total that would challenge Heather Knight and her team. England were thoroughly professional in the chase and got over the line with 8 wickets and almost 3 overs to spare.

After the defeat, Harmanpreet explaining her decision said, “We were going with a winning combination. We did really well against Australia. And that is the reason we just wanted to go with the same combination.”

Mithali the highest run-scorer for India in T20Is had scored a couple of fifties in the World T20 against Pakistan and Ireland. The team didn’t need her to bat in the game against New Zealand and was out with an injury against Australia. Both the games, the Indian women won with a lot of ease that gave them the confidence of continuing with the winning combination but it was not to be.

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