Former chairman of the Committee of Administrators of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Vinod Rai Monday regretted that women’s cricket in India was given the attention it deserves, NDTV Sports reported.
Rai, who has been in the news lately because of his book ‘Not just a Nightwatchman’, in a recent interview with The Week said: “Unfortunately, women cricketers had not been taken seriously till about 2006, when [Sharad] Pawar took the initiative to merge the men’s and women’s association.”
“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,” he added.
Regret the state of affairs of women’s cricket in India, the former BCCI official said he sincerely believes 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 said.
He recalled that women’s cricket got its due attention after India reached the final of the 2017 ICC World Cup, in which Harmanpreet Kaur played a knock of 171 not out to power India to the final.
“That is an alibi for not doing things. Unless you give them support, how are they going to win a trophy? If they could not win in Australia or England, [then] the main thing was mind conditioning. Every team has those mental trainers and sports psychologists.
“I regret 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,” Rai narrated.—Agencies
