Brimming with promise: Indian women’s cricket needs to look beyond the bitter Mithali Raj vs Ramesh Powar saga

It’s been more than a week since India was outplayed by England in the Women’s World T20 semifinals. But the acrimony between virtuoso cricketer Mithali Raj and coach Ramesh Powar, caused primarily by the leaving out of the former from the knock-out game, shows no sign of ending. Allegations and counter-allegations continue. There couldn’t have been a sadder advertisement for women’s cricket, especially at a time when matches are being televised live, endorsements are rolling in and a lucrative global T20 circuit beckons the best.

It’s no surprise that the bitter spat, closely followed by the media and drawing polarised views on social media, has also taken the focus away from the team’s overall positive performance. This was Women in Blue’s best show in World T20 since 2010, when it had also exited at the last four stage. In the Caribbean, where this edition was held, captain Harmanpreet Kaur’s girls demolished both world No 1 Australia and formidable New Zealand in group games. Two of the three highest totals in the tournament were notched up by India which won every group game, and with ease.

What then went wrong in the semifinal? The truth is that much like the Men in Blue, Kaur and company have often failed to produce their A game at crunch time in major tournaments. Barring exceptions, such as the 2017 World Cup ODI semifinal, when Kaur produced a blockbuster unbeaten 171 against Australia, Women in Blue have been collectively sub-par in make-or-break games.

In the same championship, India waltzed past England by 35 runs in the group stage, but lost by a heart-breaking nine runs in the final. At one stage, India needed just 37 runs off 46 balls with seven wickets in hand before collapsing inexplicably. In June, India lost to lowly Bangladesh in a last-ball thriller in the Asia Cup T20 final in Kuala Lumpur. Barring Kaur (56 off 42 balls), no other player scored even a dozen. In the 2016 World Cup T20, the team crumbled time and again before an expectant home crowd, losing three games – all narrowly – out of four to make an early exit.

Brittle temperament has prevented the team from making the vital transition from a good team to a champion squad. The crushing eight-wicket loss against England last week only reaffirms that this team doesn’t handle pressure well and that there’s an urgent need to work on its mental strength. As batters, Veda Krishnamurthy, Deepti Sharma and others couldn’t make a decisive intervention in the three games mentioned above. Mithali, too, had failed in the 2017 ODI World Cup final (17 off 31 balls) and 2018 Asia Cup T20 final (11 off 18 balls). Even Smriti Mandhana’s success rate in major games is quite low.

Several other areas also need work. The team has topgrade fielders, such as Veda, Deepti, Harmanpreet, Jemima Rodrigues, Dayalan Hemalatha and Radha Yadav. Wicketkeeper Tanya Bhatia is razorsharp behind the stumps. But at least four sitters were grassed against Pakistan. In the semis, ace leg-spinner Poonam Yadav, who had floored two catches in earlier games, dropped England’s Natalie Sciver off Anuja Patil, who had been brought in for Mithali. The score was 30/2 then; Sciver on 2. England’s batters had been shaky throughout the championship. Who knows what might have been had that chance been taken? Sciver finished with an unbeaten 52 off 38 balls. Once the moment was gone, India did not show the stomach for a further scrap.

There’s more. With the peerless Jhulan Goswami signing off from the game’s shortest version, India’s pace attack lacked bite: they took only one wicket in the entire tournament.

But, overall, women’s cricket’s GenNow brims with promise. Players like Jemima, Smriti, Deepti, Tanya, and Radha are all less than 23 years of age. They can only improve with time. Even the pace attack – Arundhati Reddy, Mansi Joshi and Pooja Vastrakar (who missed the World Cup due to injury) – have shown ability and intent. Once the flaws are ironed out, this bunch, when blended with the experience of players like Kaur, can be moulded into a trophy-winning side. Cricket is a team game and the Mithali-Powar row doesn’t help synergise Team India’s potential. It’s imperative to end this controversy and look ahead in the best interests of women’s cricket in India.

Q2 Growth Slows to 7.1%, But India Still Leads World

Experts don’t see too much cause for concern; FY19 growth expected to be on target

India’s economy grew at a slower-than-expected pace in the September quarter, easing by over a percentage point from the nine-quarter high of the preceding three-month period as a weak rupee, rising crude prices and tight liquidity conditions in the financial markets dented sentiment.

Gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 7.1% in the second quarter of the fiscal year, down from 8.2% in the April-June period, data released by the statistics office showed. Slower manufacturing growth and 2.4% contraction in mining contributed to decline in growth.

Economists had pegged their estimates at 7.2-7.9% in an ET poll last week. The economy expanded 6.3% in the September quarter last year. The high growth in first quarter was seen as an aberration because of the pronounced base effect of low growth in the year earlier. Full-year growth is, however, broadly expected to be on target, economists said. The Reserve Bank of India has forecast 7.4% growth in FY19.

Despite the slight easing, India is still the fastest-growing major economy ahead of China, which reported a 6.5% rise in the July-September quarter.

“GDP growth for second quarter 2018-19 at 7.1% seems disappointing,” said economic affairs secretary Subhash Chandra Garg but added that April-September expansion was still strong.

“First-half GDP growth is at 7.6% and is quite robust and healthy—still the highest growth rate in the world,” Garg said.

Improved Outlook for 4 Months

The Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister also focused on the positives. “These estimates represent a sizable jump from last year’s Q2 growth rate estimates of 6.3%, indicating sustained acceleration in India’s economic growth,” it said.

“As expected GDP growth in Q2 of 2018-19 was a good 1 per cent lower than in Q1. Q1 number was on a very low base in the previous year. It did not signify a bump in growth and did not warrant the jubilation of the BJP three months ago,” former finance minister P Chidambaram tweeted.

But independent experts didn’t see too much cause for concern.

“On the whole therefore, second-quarter GDP numbers do not ring in any alarm or indicate any serious deviation from the expected growth numbers,” said India Ratings chief economist DK Pant, pencilling in a 7.3% rise for FY19. With growth easing slightly, the RBI is not likely to raise rates when the monetary policy committee meets next week.

MULTIPLE DRAGS

Growth as measured by gross value added, or GVA, was 6.9% compared with 6.1% in the year-ago period. The slowdown was largely driven by manufacturing and agriculture along with a contraction in mining.

Manufacturing grew 7.4% compared with 13.5% in the preceding quarter and 7.1% in the year earlier as a rise in input and energy costs along with rupee depreciation hit corporate margins. Mining output contracted 2.4%. Construction activity, which expanded from the year earlier, slowed from the June quarter. Both sectors are high employment generators.

“This quarter also faced the challenge of higher oil prices resulting in much higher import bill and the weakening of the rupee,” the finance ministry said in a statement.

The combination of rising crude, rupee depreciation and liquidity also impacted private consumption with growth slowing to 7% in the second quarter from 8.6% in the preceding one. Investment activity remained robust with public spending helping, rising by 12.5% in the second quarter from 10% in the first.

LOOKING AHEAD

The lower-than-expected growth has tempered the full-year view slightly but with crude falling, the rupee rising and liquidity constraints improving, the outlook has improved for the last four months of the fiscal.

The Indian economy is on track to maintain a high growth rate in the current global environment, the ministry concluded.

After the second-quarter numbers, while ICRA and India Ratings retained their FY19 forecast at 7.2% and 7.3%, respectively, a few others cut estimates.

“We had been expecting slower second half but with the dismal second-quarter numbers, we now revise the full-year growth figures downwards by 20 basis points to 7.1%,” said Kotak Mahindra Bank economist Upasna Bhardwaj.

Higher consumption, fuelled by festive demand in the third quarter and the likelihood of a gradual improvement in investment, should support growth in the second half of the fiscal, said CARE Ratings chief economist Madan Sabnavis. But the fullyear growth expectation was lowered. “We now expect GDP growth for 2018-19 to be around 7.4% from 7.5% earlier,” he said.

Still, higher growth in first half and softer crude prices will allow the government to show a recovery from 6.7% growth last fiscal as it heads into elections next year. Crude oil has eased from $85 a barrel to near $60 while the rupee has appreciated to a four-month high of 69.58 per dollar.

(Source : Times of India)

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