The controversial omission of Mithali Raj in India’s semi-final clash against England in the Women’s World T20 has prompted the BCCI’s Committee of Administrators (CoA) to ask for her fitness logs during the tournament. The CoA was also strongly concerned by the fact that minutes of the selection meeting before the semi-final were leaked to the media and have sought an explanation from two seniormost officials in the BCCI management including Rahul Johri, the board’s chief executive officer.
The team coach, Ramesh Powar, and manager Trupti Bhattacharya are scheduled to meet the CoA and Johri on Monday to hand over their report on India’s performance at the World T20.
Raj, the most experienced player in Indian women’s cricket, was benched for the semi-final, which India eventually lost by eight wickets. As India’s middle order collapsed from 89 for 2 to 112 all out, Raj’s omission immediately drew attention and raised multiple questions. She had scored two consecutive half-centuries before missing the match against Australia with a knee injury.
Although Raj was declared fit on the eve of the semi-final, the team management decided to leave her out to stick to a “winning combination” that had beaten Australia, captain Harmanpreet Kaur said after the loss to England.
According to the Times of India, the eventual decision to drop was taken at the selection meeting couple of hours before the match on Thursday. That meeting also was attended by national selector Sudha Shah and team manager Bhattacharya.
“I, as manager, convened the meeting. They (captain, coach and selector) discussed the wicket and the coach expressed that the same winning combination against Australia should play,” Bhattacharya reportedly noted in her report, accessed by the newspaper. “Harman and Smriti shared the same view and also told the selector, Sudha Shah, that an extra bowler would help the team.”
Bhattacharya is understood to have sent the minutes, as per protocol, only to Johri and Saba Karim (BCCI’s general manager, cricket). Both Johri and Karim are understood to have responded to the CoA, saying they had no knowledge about the leak to the media.