Ramesh Powar reacts to accusations by Mithali Raj; Calls her 'aloof and difficult to handle'

After Indian skipper Mithali Raj accused Ramesh Powar of humiliating her and posing a biased attitude towards her, the Women’s Team coach opened up on the issue and said that he did have a ‘strained’ relationship with Mithali but benching her for the WT20 semi-final match against England was entirely professional and was solely based on cricketing reasons.

The Indian ODI captain was dropped from the Indian playing XI, after which, the Indian team lost the match against England which ended their WT20 stint in West Indies as they were knocked out of the tournament. This led to an outburst from Mithali Raj who wrote a letter to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) accusing Powar of biased behaviour.

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Meanwhile, on Powar’s behalf, a BCCI official stated that the veteran had become unmanageable and difficult to handle. The official further added that the professional relationship between Powar and Mithali had been strained as he always found Raj aloof and difficult to handle.

He maintained that it was due to poor strike rate that she was dropped against England and also because the team management wanted to maintain a winning combination," the official said.

Reportedly, the Women’s Team coach accepted to being indifferent to Mithali. Whereas the veteran cricketer had also accused the Committee of Administrators (CoA) official Diana Edulji of using her position against her.

Later, Raj reacted to the accusations made by head coach Ramesh Powar and took to Twitter to express her disappointment, 

I'm deeply saddened & hurt by the aspersions cast on me. My commitment to the game & 20yrs of playing for my country.The hard work, sweat, in vain.
Today, my patriotism doubted, my skill set questioned & all the mud slinging- it's the darkest day of my life. May god give strength

— Mithali Raj (@M_Raj03) November 29, 2018

In the meantime, Powar’s tenure is about to end on November 30, Friday. Even if he will be free to apply, the chances of his recruitment are very little since he has come under the scanner after the following event.