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It's been an eventful week surrounding women's cricket in India. While Ramesh Powar replaced WV Raman as the Head Coach of the women's side, the women's squad for the upcoming tour of England was also announced on Saturday. And now, Raman has alleged a "smear campaign" against him. After failing to retain his position as the Head Coach, Raman said that this campaign has reportedly gained unwarranted attraction and urged the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly to stop it.
It is being reported that in a mail, he also addressed to the National Cricket Academy head Rahul Dravid, stating that it will be "extremely disconcerting" if his candidature was rejected owing to reasons other than his "incompetency as a coach." Notably, in a rather surprising move, Powar was selected over Raman by the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) for the top job on May 13.
The move came as a surprise because it was under Raman that the Indian team had a dream run and ended up as the runners-up at the Women's T20 World Cup last year.
I am prepared to give an explanation: Raman
"I presume you might have been told different views about my style of functioning and work ethic. Whether those views conveyed to the officials of the BCCI had any impact on my candidature is of no consequence now," Raman wrote in the letter accessed and quoted by PTI.
"What is important is that the smear campaign seems to have gained some unwarranted traction with some BCCI officials which needs to be halted permanently. I am prepared to give an explanation should you or any of the office bearers require it," he added.
Raman said that if he was rejected due to his own incompetency as a coach, then there is no argument or judgement. However, it will be disconcerting it his candidature was rejected due to some other reasons especially the allegation from people more focused on achieving personal objectives rather than what's in best interest of the team.
While Raman's letter didn't name anyone specifically, it is being learned that he was writing about the star culture in the team. The letter is sure to raise some eyebrows given that the coaches have earlier, too, had to be sacked following fallouts with players.