Mithali Raj accuses coach Ramesh Powar of bias after exclusion from World T20 semi-final in letter to BCCI

India batswoman Mithali Raj has written a letter to BCCI expressing her anger over the ‘humiliation’ she faced moments before she was dropped from the playing XI of the World T20 semi-final against England. As per an India Today report, in a letter to BCCI, Raj said that Powar humiliated her during the course of the tournament. Raj’s personal coach RSR Murthy was quoted as saying in The Sportstar that she was told during the warm-up session on the morning of the semi-final that she was not going to feature in the playing XI. Raj wrote in the letter that she has no qualms with the captain Harmanpreet Kaur. She was quoted as saying on India Today, “I would also like to point out that I have nothing against the T20 captain Harmanpreet Kaur except for the fact that her call to support the decision of the coach to leave me out of the eleven was baffling and hurtful. I wanted to win the world cup for my country and it hurts me because we lost a golden opportunity.” India lost the semi-final match against England by 8 wickets. Not to forget that Raj had scored two fifties in the tournament, winning player of the match awards for the knocks. Raj also accused CoA member Diana Edulji of bias. Here’s the full letter:

“To put things in perspective, I have always reposed faith in Diana Edulji and have always respected her and her position as a member of the COA, Never did I think she will use her position against me, more after hearing what all I had to go through in the Caribbean as I had spoken to her about it. Her brazen support in the press with regard to the decision of my benching in the semifinal of the T20 World Cup has left me deeply distressed, more because she knows the real facts having spoken to me,” Raj wrote in the letter_._ “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 India had won the game, I am sure nobody would have questioned their decision,” Edulji, a former India captain, had said earlier. Raj also wrote that she has felt depressed and deflated for the first time in her career. She wrote, “For the first time in a 20 year long career, I felt deflated, depressed and let down. I am forced to think if my services to my country are of any value to a few people in power who are out to destroy me and break my confidence.” With inputs from PTI