Raman’s appointment as women’s coach in limbo after Edulji declines to clear his contract: Report

The ongoing tussle between the two-member Committee of Administrators (CoA) has put former India opener WV Raman’s appointment as new women’s team coach in limbo after Diana Edulji once again objected to clearing his contract and questioned the hurry in appointing a coach, ESPNCricinfo reported.

The rift between Chairman Vinod Rai and Edulji has been out in the open since the latter asked for BCCI CEO Rahul Johri to be sacked in an alleged sexual harassment case. Rai, instead, appointed a three member committee to probe the allegations and the BCCI CEO was later absolved by them.

Edulji was also against Rai constituting a new Cricket Advisory Committee to select a new women’s team coach and wanted Ramesh Powar, who was in the eye of storm over the dropping of Mithali Raj from the World T20 semifinals against England, to continue till the original CAC comprising Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman could take the call on the new coach.

Rai instead constituted a new committee comprising Kapil Dev, Shanta Rangaswamy and Anshuman Gaekwad which selected Raman as the new coach.

On Friday, Kapil Dev had said that one person’s ego should not affect the appointment of the new coach.

However, when BCCI Chief Financial Officer Santosh Rangnekar wrote to the CoA for approval of Raman’s professional fees and Rai asked Eduji to clear the contract, she wrote back questioning the reasons for the hurry.

“The CEO & yourself in the past had changed/extended timelines for an individual who eventually became the head coach of men’s team, then how is it that you have suddenly found it difficult to give time to CAC which comprises of great legends the country has known (Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman) or extend the contract of the coach Ramesh Powar. Please recall the time when the men’s team went without a coach to West Indies and late Doc Sridhar was asked to be with the team, as timelines were extended and CAC was allowed to complete its process of selecting a coach,” the former Indian women’s team captain wrote in an email quoted by Times of India.

“If the CEO, CFO and GM Cricket Operations in charge of women’s cricket do issue a new contract, then they will be liable for financial damages to the BCCI,” she added.

Instead, Edulhi wants Raman to be sent to New Zealand as an interim coach while the CAC of Ganguly, Tendulkar and Laxman will be asked to pick a new coach.