Diana Edulji, former India captain and currently a member of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators that oversees the functioning of the BCCI, slammed the Indian cricket board for being a “male chauvinist organisation”. She even recounted a disturbing meeting with former BCCI president N Srinivasan and how dismissive he was of the women’s game then.

Addressing an event organised by The Indian Express in Mumbai on Tuesday, Edulji said that the BCCI still refused to accept women’s cricket completely and acknowledge that the team has done well.

“I’ve always been a BCCI basher, right from the day women’s cricket came into the BCCI fold in 2006,” she was quoted as saying by The Indian Express. “BCCI is a very male chauvinist organisation. They never wanted women to dictate terms or get into this thing. I was very vocal right from my playing days, from when I started.”

She added, “Even now, I would still say that it is not yet well accepted within BCCI that women’s cricket is doing well. It is very difficult for them to accept the fact that this team has done very well.”

Talking about Srinivasan’s era, she recalled an incident where he allegedly told her that he would like to do away with women’s cricket as a whole.

“When Mr Srinivasan became president, I would like to say that I went to congratulate him at the Wankhede Stadium. He said, ‘If I had my way, I wouldn’t let women’s cricket happen.’ He hates women’s cricket,” she said at the event.

With Srinivasan out of the picture and Edulji the player representative in the COA, she has the chance to change things for women’s cricket in India. Mithali Raj and her team have grabbed the attention of the nation when they finished runners-up at the World Cup in England last month. The overwhelmingly positive response since then has been praised by the women’s team as well.