'What angers me the most is that she has not received a communication from the BCCI' - Lisa Sthalekar on the Board's apathy towards Veda Krishnamurthy

India’s women team decorated middle-order batter Veda Krishnamurthy is battling tough times as the second wave of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has hit her family hard. In the past month, Veda lost both her mother and sister to the deadly virus. Meanwhile, the cricketer isn’t experiencing an ideal outing in her cricket career too as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has dropped Veda from the Indian squad for the upcoming India women tour of England. 

Veda is a senior player in India’s National Women Cricket team and thus far has featured in 48 One Day Internationals and 76 T20 Internationals scoring 829 and 875 runs respectively. As Veda is coping up with two major personal losses, former Australian women’s captain Lisa Sthalekar took to her official Twitter handle to accuse the BCCI of being insensitive and ignorant towards the plight of the Indian cricketer. 

Lisa posted a long note on her Twitter handle slamming the Indian board. The veteran admitted that dropping Veda from the team might be a good move but there is no excuse as to why BCCI hasn’t made any effort to check how their batter is coping after losing her mother and sister. 

Lisa Sthalekar lashes out at BCCI 

Lisa gave the example of ACA saying that the organization has reached out almost daily to the players to know how they’re doing amidst the pandemic. Further, the Australian veteran reckoned that it’s high time that India should introduce a player association so that they can keep a constant check on how the cricketers are doing. 

“Whilst not selecting Veda for the upcoming series may be justified from their point of view, what angers me the most is that as a contracted player she has not received a communication from the BCCI, just to even check how she is coping. A true association must deeply care about its players and not focus solely on just the game at any cost. 

“So disappointed. As a past player, the ACA has reached out daily to see how we are and provided all kinds of service. If there was a need for player association in India it is surely now. The stress, anxiety, fear, and grief that many players have experienced through this pandemic will take its toll on them as individuals and inadvertently affect the game,” she wrote on Twitter.

There is still time to fix this!! pic.twitter.com/LT3hApMioJ

— Lisa Sthalekar (@sthalekar93) May 15, 2021