Mithali Raj: Time for people to talk about our performance

India women's ODI captain Mithali Raj during a press conference at the Cricket Centre, Wankhede Stadium yesterday. Pics/Ashish Raje

Indian women's ODI team captain, Mithali Raj wants her teammates to give cricket fans an opportunity to talk about their performance and nothing else. Mithali, who was at the centre of a storm after she was dropped for the semi-final of the ICC World T20 against England in the Caribbean last November, said: "I don't know how controversies help the profile of the sport because the profile of the sport fully depends on how players and teams perform - any sport for that matter.

It [the controversy] definitely hampered women's cricket in a not-so-good way. But we are getting an opportunity to perform and let people talk about the team's performance," said Mithali at a press conference yesterday before the Indian women's team leave for a tour of New Zealand.

Mithali's clash with then coach Ramesh Powar was out in the open and although the former Mumbai and India off-spinner had the support of key players Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana, Powar was not picked as coach again.

When asked whether she ever thought about quitting T20 cricket to concentrate on ODIs after the incident in the World T20 event, Mithali said: "I never thought of quitting because whatever happened was on the field. I believe whenever I take that decision it probably will be because of my own reasoning; about my own game." Mithali is three ODIs away from her 200th one-day international game. The team will kick off their three-match ODI series on January 24 at Napier before the T20I series begins on February 6 at Wellington.

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