Everyone was accessible and keen to learn, says new Indian women's team coach Ramesh Powar

08/20/2018

Ramesh Powar, the newly appointed Indian women's cricket team coach, has stated that all players are accessible and keen to learn from him. While adding that his new job as a coach for three and half months is a big challenge, he stated that all opened up individually about problems faced earlier.

Indian women's team's former coach, Tushar Arothe resigned after his position became untenable due to alleged differences with some star players, who have protested against his training methods. However, a senior BCCI official said that Arothe was forced to resign after a few senior players, with reasonable influence, wanted his immediate ouster. One of the major reasons of discontent was Arothe’s training methods because he was keen on keeping two practice sessions in a day for two and half hours while some of the senior players found it difficult to cope up with the split. Ramesh Powar has been appointed as the new coach of Indian women's cricket team and he is hopeful he makes most of the opportunity presented to him.

Powar represented India in two Tests and 31 ODIs, picking 40 wickets at the international level. He has been a stalwart in Mumbai cricket, picking 470 wickets in 148 first-class matches and was recently the spin-bowling coach at Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) before resigning in February. Powar, who recently completed a Level III coaching course in Australia, got the job after Tushar Arothe's resignation in July and will remain at the helm till the Women's World T20 which in the Caribbean in November.

Powar conducted his first training camp with the Indian team at the National Cricket Academy (NCA), in Bangalore and emphasized on the importance of bringing the whole side "on one page."

“If you connect with each and every girl individually then you will know exactly what is happening in the team. That’s what I exactly did in the first camp at the NCA in Bangalore.I will try and take them to one page because India is greater than anybody. When you represent India nothing else matters, just that flag and logo matters. That’s where I come from and I have conveyed that to them. Hopefully, they will produce some good results in the future,” Powar told CricketNext.

Power spoke largely of all the players of the team who were quite open to him about all the issues of discontent and keen to learn from their new coach.

“Everyone was accessible. No one was shut. They were enthusiastic and keen to learn from me. I was keen to provide them whatever insight I have gained over the years. It was a good interaction on the first day. Slowly they all opened up individually with respect to the issues they are facing. We are addressing those areas and we will see some difference in one month’s time,” Powar said.

Having being appointed for just three-and-a-half months, Powar said that he looked at the stint as a "likeable challenge".

“I don’t have any option. Do I? Our strength is skills. Our strength is not power like Australia or England. Don’t expect them to hit sixes. Our strength will always be wristwork, running between the wickets, spinners. If we stick to our strengths, try and fine tune it then I think we will do well. We saw the results in the last World Cup (in 2017) where India managed to beat good teams and played the final. It’s not about what they cannot do, but it’s about what they can do and they can do much better. The girls have been very responsive and have started doing their own preparations towards the journey,” Powar concluded.

The Indian women's side will travel to Sri Lanka to play three One-Day Internationals and five Twenty20 Internationals next month.