Breaking her silence on being dropped from the playing XI for the World T20 semi-final against England, Mithali Raj has lashed out at Committee of Administrators’ (CoA) member Diana Edulji and coach Ramesh Powar in a scathing letter to BCCI CEO Rahul Johri and Cricket Operations General Manager Saba Karim. While expressing her dismay at the decision, Mithali alleges in the letter that “few people in power are out to destroy me”.
Mithali, who had scored a couple of half-centuries in the tournament, has directed her ire in particular against Edulji, whom she accused of “using her position against me.” Edulji, a former Indian women’s captain, had said on Monday that “too much” was being read into the decision to leave Mithali out for the game.
“The management made the decision of not changing a winning combination and that backfired,” Edulji was quoted as saying by PTI. “If India had won the game, I am sure nobody would have questioned their decision. We can’t be questioning the team eleven.”
However, Mithali who along with skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, met Johri and Karim on Tuesday wasn’t convinced by that argument from Edulji.
“For the first time in a 20-year long career, I felt deflated, depressed and let down,” her letter reads. “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.
“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.
“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.”
Mithali also directed her anger at Powar, who was appointed on a short-term contract in the role and his term ended with the tournament in the West Indies. The 35-year old narrated a series of instances where she felt slighted by the coach in her letter.
“For instance, walking off if I am sitting anywhere around, watching in the nets when others bat but choosing to walk away when I am batting in nets, if I try to go up to him to talk to start looking into his phone and keep walking,” she wrote. “It was embarrassing and very evident to everyone that I was being humiliated. Yet I never lost my cool.”
Powar is expected to meet Johri and Karim on Wednesday.