New Delhi: Former opener WV Raman's unceremonious ouster from the Indian women's team head coach's position has opened a can of worms with both the Madan Lal-headed Cricket Advisory Committee and Neetu David-led selection panel coming under the scanner of BCCI bigwigs.
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Raman, who successfully coached the women's team to T20 World Cup final in Australia and is widely acknowledged as one of the best Indian coaches, was removed by Lal and Naik's CAC, which reinstated Ramesh Powar, who was removed from the same post in 2018.
Is Madan Lal's committee illegal as per Lodha norms?
"Maddi paaji (that's how Madan Lal is addressed in Indian cricket fraternity) celebrated his 70th birthday on March 20, 2021. The BCCI, in its appeal to Supreme Court against some of the reforms, doesn't ask for roll-back of age-cap of 70 years. So how come Madan Lal was allowed to sit in CAC meeting?," a senior member asked.
While the BCCI has no intention of using its veto to over-rule Lal and Naik, the board's top officials are unable to wrap their heads around as to what led to the recommendation of Raman's removal.
Sulakshana Naik's role in CAC meetings
Former India player Sulakshana is the younger sister of Mumbai Cricket Association secretary Sanjay Naik. She has so far attended three CAC meetings for various appointments.
Someone who is abreast with how the eight interviews were conducted said that it felt as if Naik had made up her mind that Raman had to be removed for just one bad series, despite knowing fully well that selection was not in his hands and it was done by her ex-teammate, Neetu David's panel.
"One surprising question that Raman was asked was how can he claim credit for women's team reaching T20 final as this is a team that was prepared by Ramesh Powar," the source said.
The line of questioning, according to the official, was clear that the platform was set for Powar to be reinstated.
"Even if we presume that Ramesh and Mithali Raj had problems back then and it wasn't good enough ground to remove Ramesh, does two wrongs make a right," he questioned.
"If you go by the argument Sulakshana gave during Raman's 45-minute presentation, by that logic, Ramesh is inheriting a team that Raman prepared," he countered.
Did Raman and Neetu David have a fall-out during SA selection?
An Indian news agency confirmed from multiple sources that Raman had red-flagged the kind of squad that David, Arati Vaidya, Renu Margrate, Mithu Mukherjee and V Kalpana picked for the South Africa series, for which teen batting sensation Shafali Verma was not picked for the ODIs and senior pacer Shikha Pandey was inexplicably dropped.