Diana Edulji labels women’s coach selection process as ‘unconstitutional’

BCCI officials appointed WV Raman as the next head coach of the women’s cricket team after they had short-listed the likes of Gary Kirsten and former Indian pacer Venkatesh Prasad as well. While the Indian governing body faced severe criticism for overlooking the world cup-winning coach, Diana Edulji labelled the whole process as ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘sham’.

"The entire process of selecting a qualified Coach for Women's Cricket team is unconstitutional. once again reiterate that we have been assigned the role of implementing the Lodha reforms, which says the Coach of the Indian Team can be only be appointed by the CAC. Your unilateral decision of appointing the ad-hoc committee is not only unconstitutional but also illegal. I do not endorse this sham process of announcing the appointment of the Women's Cricket Coach especially when the CAC had requested for more time and a defined role," Edulji wrote in a letter to Vinod Rai and other BCCI office-bearers, reported Cricinfo.

As per the report, the letter made it clear that Edulji opposed the decision to have an ad-hoc committee for several days to select the new coach as it is against the idea of the Lodha reforms. She mentioned in her emails that the coach has to be appointed by the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC). The Ad Hoc committee gave BCCI officials three names in order of preference: Gary Kirsten, Raman and Venkatesh Prasad. The former was not picked in the end because he wanted to continue coaching Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL and second-best choice Raman was eventually appointed the coach.

Meanwhile, Edulji also stated that the legal advice says that in the original order of the CoA's formation there was no instruction on how to resolve a deadlock. She also went on to accuse BCCI CEO Rahul Johri of "insubordination" of duty after he allegedly paid heed to the comments of CoA chief Vinod Rai while overlooking Edulji’s views.

"Do not confuse my suggestion for a few names as my approval for the ad-hoc committee. Since the first question in that email among many to legal was whether the COA has powers to appoint the Ad-hoc Committee to which the legal replied that we did not have the powers as per the new registered constitution."

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