Sabyasachi Bagchi, Kolkata: Despite being in a comfortable position to win the finals, the Indian Women’s team lost the all important ICC World Cup finals to hosts England at Lord’s on July 23. The Indian girls have been tremendously upset after the match as per their coach Tushar Arothe.
In an exclusive interview with www.xtratime.in correspondent Sabyasachi Bagchi, Arothe shared his views.
“It was a shocking incident for all of us. Imagine if you have a plate full of food in front of you and then you can’t eat it. It feels exactly like that. In our dressing room we kept bottles of champagne but in the end the girls had tears in their eyes. This was the condition of the dressing room” said Arothe.
“The girls were crying throughout the night as a result we didn’t discuss anything about the match, rather we didn’t even talk with each other. Today in the morning during breakfast I too couldn’t talk as I saw the girls had cried throughout the night. However before leaving England we would discuss the game.”
Arothe is very disheartened after watching Mithali and Jhulan breaking down after the match. The two reportedly played the last World Cup matches of their careers. Both got an opportunity to win the trophy after 2005 but then again so close yet so far away. He also believes that there happens to be some legends who despite being legends fails to win the big prize.
“I too feel sad, because we started the tournament on a high note but now we will have to return home empty handed.”
“The mistake made by Mithali happened in a fraction of a second. Mithali never committed something like that before however I firmly believe that even she herself would not be able to describe the incident. It happened in a flash” said Arothe when he was questioned about Mithali’s dismissal.
The coach believes that the turning point of the game was dismissal of Poonam Raut and Veda Krishnamurthy. “I had advised Poonam to stay till the end of the 50 overs and she played accordingly, however the two dismissals proved crucial for us. I personally think Veda shouldn’t have played that shot. I am not blaming any batsman, but Lord’s had a batting pitch and the bowlers played really well and restricted us to.”
Jhulan Goswami, the veteran Indian pacer is so upset that she didn’t communicate with her family. She hadn’t spoken to anyone since yesterday. She reportedly only spoke to her mentor Mithu Mukherjee and they didn’t speak about cricket.