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Individual ego shouldn’t come in way of women’s cricket development: Kapil Dev

Speaking about women’s coach position, Kapil Dev said it was a “very positive” sign that big names wanted the position.

Individual ego shouldn’t come in way of women’s cricket development: Kapil Dev

Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana (Photo: BCCI)

Team India’s 1983 ICC World Cup winning skipper Kapil Dev on Friday expressed his disappointment over the manner Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) member Diana Edulji is trying to stall the appointment Indian women’s team coach.

Veteran Indian opener WV Raman was selected as Indian women’s team coach after a committee headed by Kapil Dev along with Shantha Rangaswamy and Anshuman Gaekwad interviewed a host of candidates including World Cup winning India coach Gary Kirsten and Venkatesh Prasad.

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Following the selection of WV Raman, Diana Edulji had tried to stall his appointment. The CoA member had repeatedly questioned the process of appointment of women’s coach. Edulji in a statement had even gone on to call Raman’s appointment as Women coach illegal as it did not have her approval.

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However, despite Edulji’s protests, Raman was appointment as women’s head coach after CoA chief Vinod Rai’s approval.

“I am very disturbed about what all is happening. I don’t want to take names but ego of one particular individual shouldn’t be an impediment towards developing the women’s game in the country. Someone might have his or her personal likes or dislikes but that is not above the interest of the national women’s team,” Kapil Dev told PTI without naming Edulji.

Though the former all-rounder did not directly name Edulji, it was understood that he was disappointed at the latter’s stand on the issue.

Speaking about women’s coach position, Kapil Dev said it was a “very positive” sign that big names wanted the position.

“Look at the names who applied. Gary Kirsten, who coached India to World Cup. Venkatesh Prasad, who was Indian men’s team bowling coach. Raman has earned respect from everyone with his technical knowledge. If anyone has problem with these names, then he/she doesn’t have best interest of Indian cricket in mind,” Kapil added.

Speaking about Team India, Dev said the likes of Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur had raised the standard of women cricket to such a level that even people like him want to contribute.

“Just tell me where was women’s cricket at least 10 years back. Who raised the profile? It’s the players like Mithali and Harman. They have raised it to such a level that even someone like me, who didn’t keep a track of what was happening a decade back, wanted to contribute,” he said, before questioning, “Tell me one thing. Myself, Anshu and Shantha, we all have other commitments also. When we were approached, we agreed because all of us thought that we would be able to make a difference. Is it a fair thing to rake up controversy and derail the development that has happened over the years?”

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