WV Raman appointed head coach of India women’s cricket team

Former India opener WV Raman was on Thursday appointed as the head coach of the India women’s cricket team by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) despite objections within the Committee of Administrators (CoA) regarding the selection process.

A statement said that the appointment was made based on the recommendations from the ad-hoc committee, which comprised of former India captain Kapil Dev, Anshuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy. The committee had conducted the interviews of shortlisted candidates before sending the recommendations to BCCI.

It also stated that Gary Kirsten, who coached India to the 2011 World Cup triumph, was the first choice but could not take up the assignment due to his current contract with Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore.

“The ad-hoc committee decided on the following three names in the order of preference – Gary Kirsten, WV Raman and Venkatesh Prasad,” the BCCI statement read.

“However, Mr Kirsten was unable to take up this assignment due to his ongoing contract with an Indian Premier League franchise, which would have entailed Conflict of Interest as per the BCCI constitution,” the statement added.

Raman, who at present is a batting consultant at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru, has earlier coached the Indian U-19 team, while also working as a coach with state teams such as Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

The 53-year-old represented India in 11 Test matches and 27 One-Day internationals and is one of the most qualified coaches in the country. He has also earlier worked as the batting coach of Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL.

Raman’s only international century came against South Africa in an ODI in the 1992-93 overseas tour, making the left-hander the first Indian to score a hundred in the Protea nation.

Manoj Prabhakar, Trent Johnston, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Brad Hogg and Kalpana Venkatachar were the other shortlisted candidates interviewed for the post.

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