'Men's Uniforms Were Cut Up And Re-Stitched For Women': Vinod Rai's Startling Revelations On BCCI Workings

The former head of CoA Vinod Rai revealed how much BCCI cared about Women's Cricket in India when he took over.

Vinod Rai was the head of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators of India's richest sports body - the Board of Control for Cricket in India(BCCI) for nearly three years from 2017 to 2019. 

A lot of things happened in Indian cricket during his 33-month stint and Rai finally opened up about it in his new book 'Not Just A Nightwatchman. In an interview with the Week, Rai talked about how much BCCI cared for women's cricket in India. 

"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 associations," Rai said. 

"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.

I sincerely believe the girls deserved much better training, coaching facilities, cricketing gear, travel facilities, and, finally, match fees and retainers. That was lacking and we tried to rectify it."

Rai further added that he regretted not giving enough attention to women's cricket till Harmanpreet Kaur scored 171 vs Australia in World Cup 2017 semi-final and that the Indian team did not get proper food on that day & ate samosas for breakfast. 

"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 told 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!," Rai revealed.