The Indian women’s cricket team has been through a rough ride over the last month. Ever since their exit from the T20 World Cup in West Indies, controversies have hogged the limelight and in the centre of it all was India’s ODI captain Mithali Raj.
The Indian women’s cricket team has been through a rough ride over the last month. Ever since their exit from the T20 World Cup in West Indies, controversies have hogged the limelight and in the centre of it all was India’s ODI captain Mithali Raj.
Mithali was in the news after falling out with Ramesh Powar, who was the coach of the team at the recently held women’s World T20 in the Caribbean where she was dropped for the semifinal against England. Their spat became public after both wrote to the BCCI and their respective letters got leaked.
However, with the upcoming New Zealand tour in sight, Raj stressed the need to bring the focus back on cricket.
“The way things panned out was obviously not in a very good taste. It affected everybody in a different level, in a different way,” Mithali said before adding “Now I am sure things are settled and we should give more spotlight on the sport, on the players and in the team.”
“I can only say that the last few days were very stressful for me and my parents. And also for people around me, especially the way it panned out,” PTI quoted her as saying.
“It definitely did put women’s cricket in the spotlight which was not needed. When you talk about non cricketing issues and not the team the focus goes away from the sport. Now that we have a tour (vs New Zealand), it’s time that we move forward. Look forward and be more positive going forward.”
When asked on her equation with Harmanpreet Kaur, Mithali said, “We will see. When the 15 individual players come together with the support staff, it’s a huge and big family.”
“And usually in a family there will always be a difference of opinion. Everybody will not have the same kind of perspective. There will be issues and it does happen.”
“These issues are secondary to us… Not even secondary these things do not even come in the list of priority. But when we take on the field, we are ambassadors of the sport. On the field, we are one unit, we come as a team. We are there to give our best and perform as a unit,” she said. (With inputs from PTI)
Mithali was in the news after falling out with Ramesh Powar, who was the coach of the team at the recently held women’s World T20 in the Caribbean where she was dropped for the semifinal against England. Their spat became public after both wrote to the BCCI and their respective letters got leaked.
However, with the upcoming New Zealand tour in sight, Raj stressed the need to bring the focus back on cricket.
“The way things panned out was obviously not in a very good taste. It affected everybody in a different level, in a different way,” Mithali said before adding “Now I am sure things are settled and we should give more spotlight on the sport, on the players and in the team.”
“I can only say that the last few days were very stressful for me and my parents. And also for people around me, especially the way it panned out,” PTI quoted her as saying.
“It definitely did put women’s cricket in the spotlight which was not needed. When you talk about non cricketing issues and not the team the focus goes away from the sport. Now that we have a tour (vs New Zealand), it’s time that we move forward. Look forward and be more positive going forward.”
When asked on her equation with Harmanpreet Kaur, Mithali said, “We will see. When the 15 individual players come together with the support staff, it’s a huge and big family.”
“And usually in a family there will always be a difference of opinion. Everybody will not have the same kind of perspective. There will be issues and it does happen.”
“These issues are secondary to us… Not even secondary these things do not even come in the list of priority. But when we take on the field, we are ambassadors of the sport. On the field, we are one unit, we come as a team. We are there to give our best and perform as a unit,” she said. (With inputs from PTI)