A day before sending an email to BCCI asking for Ramesh Powar to continue as coach, Indian T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur is said to have met Mithali Raj, who is at the centre of the ongoing controversy after her exclusion from the Playing XI against England in the World T20 semi-finals.
ESPNcricinfo reported that the ODI captain and vice-captain met in Delhi on Sunday, a week after the rift between the veteran Raj and the former coach Powar – who is clearly backed by the current T20I leadership – was made public with a series of media leaks. First, Raj’s explosive email accusing Powar and Committee of Administrators member Diana Edulji of bias found its way to the media to Tuesday, followed by Powar’s tournament report outlining Raj’s indiscipline and Harmanpreet and Smriti Mandhana’s emails backing the outgoing coach.
The timeline of the entire saga can be found here
In their emails, both Raj had suggested an open discussion with Harmanpreet to resolve the matter between and it appears that has occurred in the presence of Vinod Rai, the head of the CoA.
However, whether it resolved the issue is unclear as Harmanpreet’s email was sent after the reported meeting.
According to the ESPNcricinfo report, Raj is understood to have told Harmanpreet that Annisha Gupta – who went on a furious Twitter tirade against the T20I captain after Rajs exclusion – was not her manager while Harmanpreet reportedly said that dropping Raj was not a personal choice but a collective call.
The report continues that Powar’s role was also discussed and that there seems to a “thaw between the players”, according to an email Rai sent to Edulji. Rai is believed to have told the players that the CoA would not take sides and will look for a new head coach. Powar, whose interim contract was only till November, can reapply but it remains to be seen if he will.