Learnt a lot from WV Raman during his tenure as coach, reveals Jhulan Goswami

Controversy has been the flavor of Women’s cricket in India over the past week following the BCCI’s controversial decision to remove WV Raman as head coach. Following a two-and-a-half-year stint in which he took the team to the final of the WT20, BCCI did not extend Raman’s contract and interestingly replaced him with Ramesh Powar, the man who Raman incidentally replaced in the first place.

While Pawar’s appointment has been welcomed, the unceremonious ousting of Raman, however, has not been received well by fans, experts and former cricketers, all of whom have questioned the board’s decision to show the 55-year-old the door.

Someone who has overseen the stints of Raman, Powar and several other coaches is the experienced Jhulan Goswami, and she thanked the Tamil Nadu man for sharing his wisdom with the players. Goswami described working with Raman as a ‘great experience’, but asserted that she has no interest in comparing him with the incoming Powar.

“I would like to congratulate Ramesh and we are looking forward to working with him. It was a great experience to work with Raman but I am not going to compare. He has worked hard on us and he taught us a lot of things from his coaching experience over the years. I want to wish him well for his future,” Goswami told Sportstar.

The controversy has taken away the limelight from what is set to be a historic year for the Women, as Goswami and the other Indian players, next month, will be playing the country’s first Test match in seven years. Goswami admitted that adapting to the longest format will be tough, but insisted that the players are grateful to just have the opportunity to play a game of Test cricket after seven long years.

“You may not get a wicket in a session but there will be sessions where you can bag three in one go. So you have to be alert, switch off and switch on accordingly as you won’t be able to concentrate for the whole span of the game. 

“You have to take things ball-by-ball and session-by-session. When we played the last Test match in 2014, there were many debuts. I am looking forward to more debuts this time as well. The players are glad that we are getting to play a Test match after a long time. And I want to thank the BCCI officials for this initiative.”

Finalists in 2017, the Indian Women will enter the 2022 World Cup with considerable expectations, particularly having reached the final of the WT20 last year. Goswami, however, said that there is a ‘long way to go’ for the tournament, and insisted that it is imperative for the side to gel together and device plans for the global extravaganza.

“We have a long way to go (for the World Cup). At this moment, let us go through this process because we, as a team, need to sit down and plan for the tournament. The whole thing is dependent on COVID right now as we are getting entangled in the pandemic. Individual preparation has also taken a hit due to a lot of restrictions and protocols. It is better to think of a plan when we get together and follow the guidelines by the BCCI.”