Men’s uniforms were re-stitched to make uniforms for Women

In a shocking revalation, Mr Vinod Rai claims that Men’s uniforms were used to make uniforms for Women!

Mr Vinod Rai has revealed that after he found out that Men’s uniforms were being cut up and re-stitched, he had to call up then designers Nike for new uniforms.

Who is Mr Vinod Rai?

Mr Vinod Rai was the former chairman of the Committee of Administrators of BCCI. He spoke about the poor state of affairs for Women’s cricket in India in an interview with The Week.

What did he say in the interview with The Week?

He said “I do not think women’s cricket has been given the attention it deserves. Unfortunately, women cricketers had not been taken seriously till about 2006, when Mr [Sharad] Pawar took the initiative to merge the men’s and women’s association. I was aghast to know that men’s uniforms were being cut up and re-stitched for women’s players. I had to ring up Nike and tell them that this was not on and that their design would be different.”

Mr Rai has been in the news lately, for his book “Not just a Nightwatchman”.

“I sincerely believe the girls deserved much better [when it came to] training, coaching facilities, cricketing gear, travel facilities and, finally, match fees and retainers. That was lacking and we tried to rectify it,” Mr Rai added.

Mr Rai also stated that it was because of “that knock” by Harmanpreet Kaur for Indian in the World Cup, did Women’s cricket gain attention.

Harmanpreet Kaur scored a blistering knock of 171* off just 115 deliveries to help India reach the ICC Women’s World Cup final. She scored those runs against a formidable Australia side in the 2nd Semi-final.

Mr Vinod also revealed that Harmanpreet Kaur was struggling during the innings with a cramp.

“That is an alibi for not doing things. Unless you give them support, how are they going to win a trophy? If they could not win in Australia or England, [then] the main thing was mind conditioning. Every team has those mental trainers and sports psychologists. My regret was that I had not given due attention to women’s cricket till the match in which Harmanpreet [Kaur] scored 171* in the 2017 Women’s World Cup [against Australia].”

She said to me “Sir, I was cramping so I had to hit sixes as I could not run much!” They were told at the hotel that they could not get the food they were supposed to, so they had samosas for breakfast that morning!” disclosed Mr Rai.

Unfortunately, India went on to lose the World Cup final to England. They were beaten by just 9 runs as Anya Shrubsole picked up 6/46 to guide England home.