The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) for BCCI has denied reports that it had requested the Indian team management for fitness logs for veteran player Mithali Raj after she was benched for the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 semifinal match last week.
Diana Edulji, the former India Women’s captain and one half of the CoA, told CricketCountry that the committee has not requested for the fitness logs.
She also denied that reports that the CoA will meet Mithali, Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur and manager Trupti Bhattacharya. She said that the BCCI General Manager Saba Karim will meet them.
Raj's exclusion from the playing XI in the semifinal against England in Antigua on Friday has created controversy as India lost the match by eight wickets.
Media reports has suggested that the CoA would summon Harmanpreet and Mithali to discuss the matter. It was also reported that CoA was not happy after team manager Trupti Bhattacharya’s report on a team selection meeting between Harmanpreet, vice-captain Smriti Mandhana, coach Romesh Powar and selector Sudha Shah was apparently leaked to media.
Many experts and fans had questioned the logic behind not including Mithali Raj, India's most senior player, in the playing 11 for such a crucial match.
Kaur, however, defended her tactics saying she had “no regrets” as the decision was taken keeping team’s interests in mind.
"Whatever we decided, we decided for the team. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, no regrets."
The news of Raj’s omission did not go down well with her manager Annisha Gupta, who lashed out at Kaur and the Indian think tank on Twitter, according to ESPNCricinfo.
“Unfortunately @BCCIWomen believes in politics not sport. After witnessing what @M_Raj03 ‘s experience could do in IndvIre it’s shocking that they went with what pleases @ImHarmanpreet -a manipulative, lying, immature, undeserving captain,” Gupta’s tweet read, soon after India were knocked out of the Women’s World T20.
In another tweet, she called Kaur a “manipulative, lying, cheat”.
