The National Indian Women’s Cricket team has struggled to get a head coach for the long term in recent times. The women in blue have been without an official head coach, including full-time support staff, since December last year after the stint of the former head coach Ramesh Pawar ended abruptly courtesy of a controversy with former Indian women’s team skipper Mithali Raj. During his tenure as a head coach with the side, he was in the headlines for all the unwanted reasons.
Things took a wrong turn when former India captain Mithali Raj was excluded from playing 11 in a crucial semi-final against England in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in West Indies in the year 2018. India went on to lose the semi-final in a comprehensive manner. He was sacked from the role based on certain reasons reported by the top BCCI officials, such as the lack of communication with the players, growing differences with the senior players, taking decisions without the consent of the captain, and having a bad rapport with the selectors. He went on to join the National Cricket Academy (NCA) to work under the NCA chief VVS Laxman.
Update:
BCCI invites applications for the positions of Bowling Coach and Fielding Coach for the Senior women's cricket team.
Deadline: To be submitted by 6:00 PM on August 10, 2023.#CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/S8Otn1WcII
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) August 2, 2023
Hrishikesh Kanitkar was handling the coaching duties of the side over a period of more than six months. However, former India cricketer Nooshin Al- Khadeer who, as a head coach, guided the Indian under-19 women’s cricket team to the Inaugural under-19 World Cup title in South Africa, earlier this year was appointed as the interim coach of the side for the recently concluded, away series against Bangladesh.
The BCCI is actively on the hunt for various roles in the coaching department and has invited applications for the post of bowling and fielding coach for the Indian women’s cricket team. Reportedly, former Mumbai legend from the domestic circuit Amol Muzumdar was the front-runner to take up the role of the batting coach of the national side for the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, later in September.
The bowling coach will be responsible for the bowling performances delivered by the bowling unit, alongside managing the workload to ensure the bowlers remain match-ready for all three formats. The fielding coach will be responsible for the fielding performances on the field. Apart from that they will also be responsible for developing and implementing comprehensive technical, tactical, physical, and cognitive fielding programs for identified talent.
The shortlisted candidates for the respective roles that are up for grabs, will have to go through an interview process by the BCCI’s Cricket Advisory Committee which includes the likes of Ashok Malhotra, Sulakshana Naik, and Jatin Paranjape. The BCCI Secretary Jay Shah has given the assurance that the batting, bowling, and fielding coaches, alongside the entire team of support staff for the Indian Women’s Cricket team, will be appointed before the Asian Games in September.