MUMBAI:Former India opener WV Raman has replaced Ramesh Powar as the coach of the Indian women’s team, beginning with the tour of New Zealand next month.
“His selection was based on recommendations of the adhoc committee comprising Mr Kapil Dev, Mr Anshuman Gaekwad and Ms Shantha Rangaswamy,” BCCI said in a statement on Thursday.
“However, Mr Kirsten was unable to take up this assignment due to his ongoing contract with an Indian Premier League franchise, which would have entailed Conflict of Interest as per the BCCI constitution,” the board further elaborated.
The appointment was made despite Committee of Administrators (CoA) being divided on the issue, with Diana Edulji asking chairman Vinod Rai to put the selection process on hold.
Raman, who played 11 Tests and 27 ODIs for India in the 90s was the obvious and unanimous choice of the panel once Kirsten refused to let go of his position as the coach and mentor of Royal Challengers Bangalore, as holding two positions amounts to a conflict of interest.
On Thursday, an ad-hoc panel comprising of former India captain Kapil Dev, Anshuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy, interviewed 10 short-listed candidates.
Raman, who has been serving as the batting coach at the National Cricket Academy for two years now, has even stepped in as the coach of India U-19 side in Rahul Dravid’s absence. Last week, he guided India to the final of Emerging Players Asia Cup.
With Kirsten ruled out, Raman was chosen as the ideal candidate as his reputation of being one of the best coaches in the domestic circuit found enough backing. The 53-yearold is expected to be in charge till 2020 World T20.
Though Kirsten was seen as the favourite, during his interview he refused to give up his position with RCB. As reported by this daily on Thursday, this is a direct conflict of interest as no person who is appointed as the coach of an Indian team can be a support staff of an IPL team.
He also runs an academy in Cape Town, which is against BCCI’s policy on conflict of interest. On Thursday, when Kirsten was asked to give up his position as RCB coach, he said that there was no conflict of interest because it was a men’s team and there was no way his position influenced his role with the national women’s team.
Not convinced by his explanation, the ad-hoc panel referred his name alongside Raman and former India seamer Venkatesh Prasad to CoA to decide.
Once CoA referred Kirsten’s issue to the legal team, it became apparent that he will be affected by a conflict of interest. Sources said that the team felt it was wrong even to shortlist him, as they felt that Kirsten should have been asked to make that choice earlier.