Former India coach Tushar Arothe slams Diana Edulji’s ‘double standards’

The controversy surrounding India women’s cricket team member, Mithali Raj, hit a new high on Tuesday when a private letter she addressed to BCCI CEO Rahul Johri and GM Saba Karim was leaked to the media. The contents of the letter pointed fingers towards reputed names like former India spinner and women’s team coach, Ramesh Powar, and CoA member Diana Edulji.

Former India women’s team coach, Tushar Arothe, has now come out and publicly accused former India cricketer Edulji of having ‘double standards’. In a recent interaction with TOI, Arothe slammed Edulji for her contradictory behaviour.

"Why is Diana contradicting her statement by saying that it was the team management's decision to drop Mithali Raj? Why did she interfere in team selection during the Asia Cup in Malaysia? At that time too, the team management had taken a decision to drop Pooja Vastrakar in the final.

"However, after the tournament, I, on tour selector Shashi Gupta and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur were summoned by Diana and asked why Vastrakar was not played in the final of the Asia Cup. At that time, I told her that it was the team management's decision, but she had clearly told me that I can't pick and choose whom to play," Arothe told TOI.

The former head coach was forced to resign from his post after players protested against his training methods and was then replaced by Ramesh Powar. Earlier, Edulji played down all the buzz surrounding Raj’s omission from the team that lost to England in the semi-final of the ICC Women’s World T20 in West Indies as she claimed that the issue was being over-hyped.

"I think too much is being made out of it. The management (captain Harmanpreet Kaur, coach Ramesh Powar, vice captain Smriti Mandhana and selector Sudha Shah) made the decision of not changing a winning combination and that backfired. If I India had won the game, I am sure nobody would have questioned their decision," Edulji said.