Smear campaign against me has to stop: WV Raman

Sacked as womenrsquos cricket team coach WV Raman has alleged that a ldquosmear campaignrdquo against him has gained unwarranted traction and urged the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly to stop itIn an email that has also been marked to National Cricket Academy head Rahul Dravid Raman wrote it will be ldquoextremely disconcertingrdquo if his candidature was rejected due to reasons other than ldquomy incompetency as a coachrdquoRaman was not retained as the head coach of the senior womenrsquos team by the Cricket Advisory Committee CAC which picked Ramesh Powar for the top jobIt was under Raman that Indian team cherished a runnerup finish at the womenrsquos T20 World Cup last year ldquoI presume you might have been told different views about my style of functioning and work ethic Whether those views conveyed to the officials of the BCCI had any impact on my candidature is of no consequence nowrdquo Raman wrote in the letterSourav Ganguly PicPTI right Rahul Dravid PicSuresh KarkeraldquoWhat is important is that the smear campaign seems to have gained some unwarranted traction with some BCCI officials which needs to be halted permanentlyI am prepared to give an explanation should you or any of the office bearers require itrdquoHe said he was not used to ldquomoaning and whiningrdquo but was bringing up the issues in case the BCCI president wishes to do a course correction ldquoIf I were to be rejected due to my incompetency as a coach there is no argument on a judgment call at all But what will be extremely disconcerting is if my candidature was rejected due to any other reasonsrdquo said the former India opener who played 11 Tests and 27 ODIs between 1988 and 1997ldquoEspecially if it was due to allegations from people who were more focussed on achieving their personal objectives at the expense of the overall hygiene and welfare of the Indian womenrsquos team and the pride of the countryrdquoThe stylish former lefthanded batsmanrsquos letter to the two former captains is sure to ruffle a few feathers given that it has always been the coaches who have either stepped aside or sacked following fallouts with players most notably ODI captain Mithali RajWhile Ramanrsquos letter didnrsquot name anyone it is understood that he was writing about the star culture that prevails in the team which he said is probably doing more harm than goodThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever