Women's cricket: Powar shunted to NCA after adverse report from Harmanpreet

Ramesh Power, the former spinner, who was head coach of the women's cricket team, has now been sacked from the same job twice.

Former India spinner Ramesh Powar might be the only coach who has been sacked twice by BCCI from the same post within a span of four years.

Ramesh Powar has been assigned a new role(Getty)

On Tuesday, the cricket board announced that Powar will be joining the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru under VVS Laxman, Head of Cricket, National Cricket Academy, and will switch to men's cricket.

BCCI maintains that this move is part of the restructuring module but it is learned that the India women's cricket team captain Harmanpreet Kaur was not happy with Powar's coaching style and she had requested the national selectors and the BCCI secretary Jay Shah to remove him from the head coach's position after the Asia Cup.

The board has appointed former India cricketer Hrishikesh Kanitkar as batting coach of the Harmanpreet-led team that would be competing in the five-match T20 series against Australia in Mumbai starting on December 9. It may be recalled that Kanitkar was one of the candidates who had applied for the head coach’s position when Powar was chosen and appointed by the Cricket Advisory Committee members Madan Lal and Sulakshana Naik in 2021.

The shuffling in the Indian coaching set-up comes with just two months to go for the ICC Women's T20 World Cup. There were murmurs that Powar will be removed after India failed to reach the semi-finals of the ODI World Cup in New Zealand in March this year.

However, he was retained and was India coach at the Commonwealth Games, Sri Lanka Series and the Asia Cup, which India won beating Sri Lanka in the final.

In 2018, Powar was replaced as head coach after the T20 World Cup in the West Indies due to his fallout with ODI captain Mithali Raj, who was dropped from the semi-final against England and India eventually lost the tie. WV Raman had then replaced Powar.

In a BCCI statement, Powar said, "I have had an enriching experience in my stint as Head Coach of the senior women’s team. Over the years I have worked closely with some of the stalwarts of the game and upcoming talents of the country. With my new role at the NCA, I will be looking to take forward my experience over the years to help build talent for the future. I look forward to working in tandem with VVS Laxman for the further development of the game and bench strength."

It is known that the newly appointed CAC will appoint the new head coach soon through the set procedure.