Sanjay Manjrekar slams Harmanpreet Kaur for backing Ramesh Powar as coach

Another page was added to the Mithali Raji-Ramesh Powar controversy after former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar took on captain Harmanpreet Kaur for backing Powar as the coach. Manjrekar said she was exaggerating the role of the coach in the team. Powar found himself at a disadvantage following allegations by senior player Mithali that he mistreated her during the World Women’s T20 in the Windies last month.

Indian cricket saw a revisit to the ugly episode which was witnessed when Greg Chappell had joined the men’s cricket team as the coach and had a terrible fallout with Sourav Ganguly. Mithali was played in only three matches in the tournament but was the woman of the match in two in which she got to bat. But when she was ignored for the crucial semi-final tie against England on a difficult wicket and India lost the game by 8 wickets, hell broke loose.

Powar changed the face of women’s cricket team, claimed Kaur

A series of trading charges followed between Mithali and Powar who said it was difficult to handle an “aloof” Mithali to which the latter said it was the “darkest day” of her life. And then reports started surfacing about the Indian cricket board not in favour of continuing Powar as the coach, Kaur and her deputy Smriti Mandhana backed him. Kaur even wrote to the BCCI requesting not to change Powar and said he is someone who changed the face of Indian women’s cricket team.

India indeed had a dream run in the World T20, winning all their games till that semi-final which ruined all their good work.

Harmanpreet needs reminding that when Powar was not coach India reached the finals of the WC and almost won it. By suggesting that if Powar is removed we have to start from scratch is an exaggeration of any coach’s role in the team.

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) December 4, 2018

But Kaur’s claim that changing the coach will mean that the team will have to start all over again and Manjrekar had an objection to that. He was not okay with the exaggeration of the coach’s role and lashed out at Kaur on Twitter reminding her that India had reached the final of the 50-overs World Cup in England in 2017 and there was no Powar in charge then.

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