Kolkata: Members of Indian women’s cricket team, who are also in quarantine in Mumbai like their men’s counterparts, have been working overtime at the hotel gym to be in top shape for their upcoming tour of England. Scheduled to fly along with Virat Kohli & Co on June 2, they will be playing one Test, three One-day Internationals and as many T20 Internationals.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) released a video with a significant catchline: ‘‘Shut the noise,’’ which has the likes veterans Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami and current stars like Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana or Jemima Rodrigues going through some punishing routines. Raj is still the skipper of the Indian Test team while the hard-hitting batsman, Harmanpreet Kaur, is the skipper of white ball teams.
The catchline of ‘Shut the noise’ is an intriguing one given the recent spate of controversy in women’s cricket over the appointment of new head coach Ramesh Powar, who replaced former Indian opener W.V.Raman despite the latter having a decent run - which included a runners-up finish in the women’s T20 World Cup last year. Raman stirred up quite a hornet’s nest by dashing off an email to the Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, the BCCI president and Director of National Cricket Academy, respectively, imploring them to end the ‘Prima Donna culture’ in women’s cricket.
In their last international fixtures in March, Indian women had lost both their ODI and T20 series against the visiting South Africans. Surely, they want to move on and brace up for the England challenge - always a demanding tour.
