Women’s T20 | My experience of coaching international teams will keep me in good stead, says Mamatha Maben

05/08/2019

Mamatha Maben, the coach of Mithali Raj-led IPL Velocity, has stated that her experience of coaching various international teams in the past will keep her in good stead when Velocity will take on Trailblazers tonight. Maben has also added that her camaraderie with Raj will also help her big-time.

Mamatha Maben will spearhead the team led by Mithali Raj and the team also has the likes of England’s Danielle Wyatt, New Zealand’s Amelia Kerr, West Indies’ Hayley Matthews to go with Indian star players like Veda Krishnamurthy and Shikha Pandey, and Sushma Verma. In such a short time, having everyone under one wing and gelling them well together was a task that needed a lot of effort and surely Maben has a big one in front of her.

However, as a case in point, Maben, who previously coached Bangladesh and China Women’s teams, is no new to the work and the Bangalore-based cricketer-turned-coach feels that the past experience will help her unite the team ahead of the game against Smriti Mandhana-led Trailblazers.

“This is going to be a very big challenge for me given the short duration of time. But then again, I think my experience of coaching various international teams in the past will keep me in good stead and the inputs of my captain Mithali Raj, who has played a lot of cricket in the past, will be very much helpful,” Maben told SportsCafe in an exclusive interview.

While many among India’s top-flight cricketers are quite settled and are big names in the world right now, the pipeline doesn’t have as many cricketers to supplement to the national team. That resulted in the future of women’s cricket is not in a state of inundation, which Maben feels can only happen if the BCCI starts focusing on getting the domestic cricket structured.

“It is a genuine cause of concern as we need our second line of cricketers to be ready on the pipeline so as to ensure that there will never be a shortage of people as far as talents are concerned. The BCCI now need to invest more money at the bottom. How long will the cream exist?

“So I really think it is the time, the domestic cricket needs to be given more prominence. Once the contract system in place and professional set in, women’s cricket will go a long way. If in the next five years, if they invest in domestic cricket, like England and Australia did, then I am sure we will be right up there,” the former India skipper concluded.