Indian women’s cricket team is without a permanent head coach since July this year. After Tushar Arothe’s tenure ended in a controversial manner, former India spinner Ramesh Powar had taken charge as interim coach. And it looked all well when he guided the team to the semifinal of the World T20I. India defeated the likes of Australia, Pakistan to storm into the last four.
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However, things became sour when the team dropped Mithali Raj for the semifinal clash against England. India lost the game and Powar coped criticism from all around. Mithali then wrote to BCCI, revealing Powar had humiliated her. Powar had then hit back by saying that Mithali was tough to work with. Later, Harmanpreet Kaur had urged the BCCI officials to extend Powar’s contract. However, the BCCI decided against it and invited applications for the post.
Consequently, several high profile names Atul Bedade, David Johnson, Rakesh Sharma, Manoj Prabhakar, Owais Shah, Herschelle Gibbs, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Dominic Thornely, Gargi Banerjee, Vidyuth Jaisimha, Ramesh Powar, Colin Siller, Dav Whatmore and Gary Kirsten applied for the job.
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But according to latest reports, former India opener WV Raman is set to be appointed as the coach of the Indian women’s team. Cricbuzz has reported that Raman although has been chosen to take over the role, the formal paperwork is yet to be completed. The BCCI is set to make the announcement on Friday (December 21).
Raman was one of the shortlisted candidates, which also included Kirsten and Venkatesh Prasad. The candidates were shortlisted for the job by the ad-hoc panel which included Kapil Dev, Anushuman Gaekwad and Shanta Rangaswamy. The list was sent to the Committee of Administrators who made the final decision.
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Raman, meanwhile, is well known in the coaching sector. He has so far coached the Tamil Nadu and Bengal cricket teams in the Ranji Trophy besides the Indian U-19 team. He was even considered for the coaching position of IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders in 2009. In the IPL, he was the assistant coach of Kings XI Punjab in 2013.