Throwing light on his letter to BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and NCA chief Rahul Dravid, former India women’s team coach WV Raman on Sunday (May 16) said he sent it to ensure Indian cricket creates a system where players adhere to a ‘healthy team culture’.
Last week, BCCI appointed former India cricketer Ramesh Powar as the head coach of the Indian women’s cricket team, replacing Raman.
After the controversial move, Raman wrote a letter to Ganguly and Dravid, reportedly alleging that there is a star culture in the Indian team.
“My writing to Sourav was to propel him into action to course-correct, if required. The letter dealt with the need for the system to encourage or ensure players adhere to a healthy team culture. Ganguly has seen it all as a former player and captain, and therefore, I felt it was better to get him into the frame. I also added Dravid because he handles cricketers of the future and might make certain aspects a part of the curriculum in the NCA, if he hasn’t already,” Raman told Cricbuzz.
“Typical of the current era, the phrase prima donna, which has never figured in the letter, has hogged the headlines! The whole point of the letter was to appraise Sourav about certain practices that need to be reviewed and rectified, if he so deemed fit.”
In December 2018, WV Raman was appointed the head coach of the India women's team. Interestingly, he had taken over from Powar, who was ousted following a tussle with Mithali Raj in the ICC T20 World Cup 2018.
“When I took charge, there were some undercurrents between certain individuals in the side but all that was handled by making them understand that the team is far more important than individuals. That whatever they had achieved thus far, whatever history they had created, they had to keep on replicating that by doing well. And that it is also in the interest of everybody to shed their differences and not carry it on to the field for the simple reason that they stood to benefit a lot more in every respect because as a team, they were gaining momentum. So there were no issues along those lines when I was there.
“What I have tried to say in my letter is very simple — that it’s very easy to get carried away doing things in one particular fashion for a long period of time. That’s what has been happening. That needs to change. That’s what I have tried to drive home in my letter. It’s not against any one particular individual as such. Sometimes, things can escape your attention, and I have tried to do my bit to address that,” Raman remarked.
