New Delhi: Former chairman of the Committee of Administrators of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Vinod Rai has been in the news lately. This is been because of his book titled Not just a Nightwatchman. In the book, Vinod Rai written about his tenure and his stint with cricket administration. Now Rai has made some startling revelations regarding the state of affairs of women’s cricket in India. He has also expected his regret that he could do nothing much to improve the situation.
Speaking about women’s cricket in India, Rai has revealed that he had once called up the then kit manufacturers Nike. He did so to ask them to design women’s jerseys separately. This is because earlier the men’s jerseys were being ‘cut-up and re-stitched’ for the women cricketers.
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“I do not think women’s cricket has been given the attention it deserves. Unfortunately, women cricketers had not been taken seriously till about 2006. Then Mr Sharad Pawar took the initiative to merge the men’s and women’s association. I was aghast to know that men’s uniforms were being cut up and re-stitched for women’s players. I had to ring up Nike and tell them that this was not on and that their design would be different,” Rai has been quoted as saying in an interview with ‘The Week’.
“I sincerely believe the girls deserved much better when it came to training, coaching facilities, cricketing gear, travel facilities and, finally, match fees and retainers. That was lacking and we tried to rectify it during our tenure,” Rai informed.
Rai also stated that women’s cricket got its due attention after India reached the final of the 2017 ICC World Cup. It was the same tournament in which Harmanpreet Kaur played a knock of 171 not out to power India to the final.
“That is an alibi for not doing things. Unless you give them support, how are they going to win a trophy? If they could not win in Australia or England, then the main thing was mind conditioning. Every team has mental trainers and sports psychologists, but the Indian women’s team did not have one.
“My regret was that I had not given due attention to women’s cricket till the match in which Harmanpreet scored 171. She told me ‘Sir, I was cramping so I had to hit sixes as I could not run much!’ They were told at the hotel that they could not get the food they were supposed to, so they had samosas for breakfast that morning!” Can you imagine the sorry state of affairs,” Rai added.
