Vinod Rai backs Mithali Raj, Diana wants Powar to continue as coach

The selection of Indias womens cricket team coach seems to have turned into an ego battle now From the emails exchanged between Committee of Administrators CoA chairman Vinod Rai and its member Diana Edulji it is quite evident that Rai is in favour of a new coach while Edulji wants interim coach Ramesh Powar to continue till the New Zealand tourBad blood in teamRai in one of his emails to Edulji which has been accessed by midday has accused Powar for the bad blood in the team The advert for the head coach has been issued If media is to be believed internationally reputed coaches have appliedare applying We cannot now withdraw and say that we will continue with our adhoc coach of three months who has been the reason for such bad blood in the team Rai wroteRais open support for ODI captain Mithali Raj indicates that the CoA chief is being rigid The team must realise that that coaches are not decided on team votes If it is a question of respecting opinions of senior players why not respect the opinion of the senior most player in fact the ODI captain Raj of the team What I cannot understand is why some members of the team or any other person advising them is against having an internationallyacclaimed coach Dont we seek to upgrade the team from the plateau that they keep hitting in international games Rai wrote in reference to T20 skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and her deputy Smriti Mandhanas recent emails urging the BCCI to extend coach Powars tenure till the next T20 World CupEdulji also wrote to Rai to continue with Powar till the forthcoming New Zealand tour and shelve the coach selection process for the time being as the Cricket Advisory Committee of Sachin Tendulkar Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman wanted more time to select the womens coachThe former India womens captains opinion was based on nonclosure of the previous selection process You Rai went ahead to issue an advert for a new coach without closing the previous process which was not completed and 6 shortlisted candidates are waiting for a result The CAC Cricket Advisory Committee has to select the Head Coach but before their availability was checked Saba Karim BCCI General Manager had already spoken to Kapil Dev Anshuman Gaekwad and Shubhangi Kulkarni I enquired for clarity on their conflict roles as how an adhoc committee was being formed without proper authority she wroteUlterior motiveOn the other hand when I mentioned lets refer the adhoc committee issue to the amicus curiae an impartial adviser to court you suddenly care about the deadlines and timelines Regarding the coach right from the beginning I have expressed that there should be no change but with someones ulterior motive emails were leaked and the team was shown as a divided lot which they are not Edulji added She reminded Rai that she has an equal stake in CoA decisions In my absence you had a meeting with the 2 Women Cricket Captains Kaur and Raj in New Delhi and when I enquired on the same you replied saying they wanted to meet you so you met themOnce again you have failed to understand that I have an equal say in all matters of BCCI as CoA with equal rights not less not moreAs chairman he cant take any unilateral decisions as there is no casting vote Edulji wrote instructing the BCCI CEO Rahul Johri and General Manager Syed Saba Karim to act when both the CoA members have given their approvalThe CoA chief still went ahead and announced the adhoc panel of Kapil Dev Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy who will interview the candidates on December 20Powar reapplies for coachs jobUNDERfire womens team coach Ramesh Powar reapplied for the post yesterday after the BCCI invited fresh applications Powar was interim coach and his contract ended on November 30 after the T20 World Cup where India made a shocking semifinal exitCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates