Vinod Rai served as the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the head of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
During his 33-month stint between 2017 and 2019, he witnessed one of the most controversial incidents in Indian cricket – the Anil Kumble-Virat Kohli saga – as well as the sad state of women's cricket in India.
During the interview about his newly released book, "Not Just a Nightwatchman", Rai revealed that his only regret during his tenure was that he did not pay enough attention to women's cricket while making the most saddening revelation about the Indian women’s cricket team.
He further revealed that the women’s team had only samosas for breakfast before the match, in which Harmanpreet Kaur made 1718 runs against Australia in the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017.
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Vinod Rai told The Week: “I do not think women’s cricket has been given the attention it deserves. Unfortunately, women cricketers had not been taken seriously till about 2006, when Mr [Sharad] Pawar took the initiative to merge the men’s and women’s associations. I was aghast to know that men’s uniforms were being cut up and re-stitched for women’s players. I had to ring up Nike and tell them that this was not on and that their design would be different.”
The former CoA chief added, “I sincerely believe the girls deserved much better [when it came to] training, coaching facilities, cricketing gear, travel facilities, and, finally, match fees and retainers. That was lacking and we tried to rectify it.”
Rai further revealed the difficulties that the Indian women's team faced during the 2017 World Cup, where the girls reached the final. He also admitted that it was only after Harmanpreet Kaur's record-breaking 171 against Australia that attention was given to women's cricket.
He concluded, “My regret was that I had not given due attention to women’s cricket till the match in which Harmanpreet [Kaur] scored 171* in the 2017 Women’s World Cup [against Australia]. She told me: “Sir, I was cramping so I had to hit sixes as I could not run much!” They were told at the hotel that they could not get the food they were supposed to, so they had samosas for breakfast that morning!”
(With The Week Inputs)
