Maben, Ratra apply for India head coach job

Former India player turned coaches Mamatha Maben and Ajay Ratra have applied for the Head Coach position of Indian Women's Cricket Team. The post is vacant now and the BCCI has called for the applications after former coach Tushar Arothe's sudden resignation last week.



In an exclusive chat with Women's CricZone, Maben shared her thoughts behind this application. "As the post fell vacant and they called for the applicant to apply, I fulfil all the requirements what they have asked for experience wise, I thought to try once for the International again. That is the only reason for the application."



Having made her debut in 1993, Mamatha Maben played 4 Test matches and 40 ODIs and has the record of being the oldest ever woman cricketer to take maiden five-wicket-haul in an ODI. She scored 359 runs in ODIs and took 21 wickets too. Her best figures are 6/10 against Sri Lanka in 2004.



Having 10 years of coaching experience, she thinks this can surely be helpful to the team. "I learnt a lot in the past 10 years. I went to China and coached the Chinese team. That was a big experience for me. Then I coached Bangladesh team. On the domestic front, I have coached Rajasthan and Karnataka team as well. I have the experience of working at the KSCA academy. Moreover, I have done private coaching as well. So, technically I have enhanced myself by doing private coaching as well as picked up experience regarding team coaching. So, I think all of these will help India a lot. If I can be a help and India can use it, I will be very happy to deliver."



While talking about the experience of having led India and played alongside the current players would help, she said, "I have led Mithali (Mithali Raj) and Jhulan (Jhulan Goswami) in the national team and played with Veda (Veda Krishnamurthy) in the Karnataka team. I know the other players too. This will definitely be an advantage here along with my coaching experience. Given an opportunity, if it can be a help for India, I would love to share it."



BCCI level 1 coach Maben thinks the most qualified applicant should get the job. "I think the most qualified applicant should get the job because the only thing that matters is Indian cricket."



Former player Ajay Ratra too applied for the post. He has played 6 Tests and 12 ODIs for India and was a part of the 2000 U-19 World Cup winning team too. Ratra is a fielding coach in NCA and has an experience of coaching Punjab in the Ranji Trophy last year. He is confident of delivering if he would get a chance.



While talking to Women's CricZone about this, he replied, "Since I have been coaching for quite some time now, I just want to share whatever I have learnt from this game as a player and as a coach. It’s a challenge for Women’s cricket team to be more consistent so I want to help them to achieve this."



He shared his views on the experience too. In his words, "Experience is always handy, you can’t buy it. Apart from cricketing technicalities, it is very important to handle different individuals. Last year working with Punjab Team would definitely help me to coach them as Punjab team had 8 India players and 11-12 IPL players."



India team will attend a camp in Bangalore from July 25 to August 3. Ramesh Power will supervise the camp as an interim coach.



Application for the post will close on 20th July. Short-listed candidates will have to appear for an interview in Mumbai soon after that.