His association with the Indian women’s cricket team lasted for a little more than a year. And as he stepped down as the coach of the team, Tushar Arothe, says he has no grudges against the players or the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
“I don’t have grudges. I am hoping that the team does well in the future. My good wishes are always with them,” Arothe told Sportstar on Tuesday evening.
A former Baroda cricketer, Arothe took charge as the coach of the women’s team last year, replacing Purnima Rau. He got off to a great start with India finishing runner-up at World Cup, but then reports of discord within the team emerged a few weeks back.
Read: Tushar Arothe steps down as India Women's team coach
With some of the senior players showing displeasure with the coach, the BCCI called a meeting a few days back to know what the problem was.
Though Arothe doesn’t have any complaints, the former cricketer believes that it is important for the women cricketers to come out of their comfort zone. “The girls need to come out of the comfort zone to achieve something big. That’s very important. You cannot be in your comfort zone for long. If you have to win the World Cup, you have to get out of it. That’s my only point,” Arothe said.
Though he doesn’t want to talk much about what actually led to the trouble, Arothe indicates that some of the players were not game ‘for longer sessions’. “They wanted to do just one session. But (if you have to improve), there has to be long sessions. The BCCI should not entertain it,” Arothe said.
While the players were asked to put up their case in the meeting held last week, Arothe was not invited. But then, the coach admits that he did convey his side of the story to the Board. “They called me and I gave my version,” he said.
Looking back at the golden run in the last one and a half year, Arothe said: “We had a great run. We went to South Africa twice and won both the times. We reached the World Cup final. We won against England in ODIs. I feel we should have won the Asia Cup. But then, we didn’t play well.”
“If I am not playing well, if I am not getting runs, I will bat more in the nets. I will play more matches, but if you don’t want to do that, how can you improve your game? My point is that,” the coach added. He, however, hopes that the players get back to form soon and prepare well for the next World Cup.
Having quit the job, Arothe plans to take a break for the moment. “This decision was taken on personal grounds. I wanted to stay with the family and that is the main reason,” he said.
Arothe was last seen with the players during the BCCI Awards ceremony in Bengaluru last month. Back then, the coach wouldn’t have perhaps thought that like all good things, this too will end so soon!
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