Letter to Ganguly was to propel him into action to course-correct: Raman

Former India Women's head coach WV Raman revealed that the letter he sent to BCCI president Sourav Ganguly was to "propel him into action to course-correct". In a surprising move, Raman was not retained as the head coach of the senior women's team by the Cricket Advisory Committee who picked Ramesh Powar for the top job.

"My writing to Sourav was to propel him into action to course-correct, if required. The letter dealt with the need for the system to encourage or ensure players adhere to a healthy team culture. Ganguly has seen it all as a former player and captain, and therefore, I felt it was better to get him into the frame. I also added Dravid because he handles cricketers of the future and might make certain aspects a part of the curriculum in the NCA, if he hasn't already," Raman told Cricbuzz.

"Typical of the current era, the phrase prima donna, which has never figured in the letter, has hogged the headlines! The whole point of the letter was to appraise Sourav about certain practices that need to be reviewed and rectified, if he so deemed fit."

It was under Raman, India cherished a runner-up finish at the women's T20 World Cup last year. However, they went down 1-4 and 1-2 to South Africa in ODI and T20I series respectively this March in Lucknow. Raman said that the team will have to get out of their comfort zone if they want to keep improving.

"When I took charge, there were some undercurrents between certain individuals in the side but all that was handled by making them understand that the team is far more important than individuals. That whatever they had achieved thus far, whatever history they had created, they had to keep on replicating that by doing well. And that it is also in the interest of everybody to shed their differences and not carry it on to the field for the simple reason that they stood to benefit a lot more in every respect because as a team, they were gaining momentum. So there were no issues along those lines when I was there," the 55-year-old said.

"What I have tried to say in my letter is very simple -- that it's very easy to get carried away doing things in one particular fashion for a long period of time. That's what has been happening. That needs to change. That's what I have tried to drive home in my letter. It's not against any one particular individual as such. Sometimes, things can escape your attention, and I have tried to do my bit to address that."

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Raman also said that COVID-19 messed up most of his plans. "Everybody's plans have gone haywire because of covid. People have constantly had to rework and get rewired in so many different ways. But again, we didn't have any cricket to look forward to after the World Cup early last year, which meant the uncertainty didn't give you the encouragement to try and plan what needs to be done.

"When you got a decent measure of what covid is all about and with the government rightly subjecting us to lockdowns, you were very sure nothing much was going to happen for the rest of the year. After that, once the contract expired, you don't seriously consider sitting down and chalking out a plan because as somebody who has been a part of this system for 40 years, you don't take anything for granted. I did wait for the process to be completed, after which I would have obviously sat down and planned. Along those lines, I don't think I was necessarily handicapped, or am ruing about all the plans made going waste."

Raman was happy that there was some communication between him and the BCCI secretary Jay Shah. "My tweet to Jay Shah was a response to his communication to me, in which he said nice things, besides thanking me for my contribution during my term. Maintaining decorum by reciprocating in the same tone and spirit is nothing but decency."