The latest development in the ongoing controversy over Mithali Raj’s exclusion from the World T20 semi-finals last month has shown a rift within the Indian women’s cricket team as T20 captain Harmanpreet Kaur and her deputy Smriti Mandhana wrote to the BCCI backing coach Ramesh Powar.

The duo wrote to the BCCI top brass asking them to extend the coach’s contract and for the conflict between Powar and Raj to be settled amicably. To very little surprise, both emails found their way to the media. You can read Harmanpreet’s email here.

The subject line of Mandhana’s email read “Sincere Plea” and was marked to the two-member Committee of Administrators (CoA), Rahul Johri (BCCI CEO), Saba Karim (GM Cricket Operations) and the three BCCI office-bearers. The emails were also copied to Trupti Bhattacharya (India women team manager) and Sudha Shah (one of the national selectors).

The timeline of the entire saga can be found here

Respected Sir/Mam,

I am in the receipt of the mail sent by Harmanpreet Kaur, to which I would like to add as the Vice Captain of the T20I Indian Womens team, with respect to the T20 World Cup 2018 held at West Indies.

All the meetings that were held with respect to the playing XI for all the matches came to a unanimous decision which was taken by captain (Harmanpreet Kaur), vice-captain (Smriti Mandhana), coach (Ramesh Powar) and selector (Sudha Shah) in the presence of our team manager (Trupti Bhattacharya).

Since the introduction of Powar, he along with the support staff has boosted our confidence as a team which has helped us win 14 consecutive T20 matches. He changed the intent of the players and gave everyone confidence to express their selves on the field to the fullest. His one to one connect with each player has lead to clarity in roles for all players and made everyone believe that they are match winners in his short tenure with the team.

Since we are merely a month away from the New Zealand series and hardly 15 months from the next T20 World Cup in Australia his guidance and inputs will be helpful for the team to perform well.

It is important for Indian cricket’s growth that everybody is on the same page and I believe that any difference can be amicably resolved via discussion.

Thank you,

Regards,

Smriti Mandhana