Ramesh Powar requests MCA to revoke ‘life ban’ on him

MUMBAI: Former India off-spinner Ramesh Powar on Monday urged Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) to “revoke the life ban on him” to enable him to appear before the Cricket Improvement Committee (CIC) for an interview for the post of Mumbai coach.
In an e-mail (a copy is with TOI) to MCA president Vijay Patil and all the Apex Council members, Powar wrote: “I have come across a press report based on an e-mail by prof Ratnakar Shetty addressed to the MCA president & secretary in TOI, related to my application for the post of Mumbai Ranji team coach.It states that MCA has sidelined me due to a decision of the managing committee in the past. The report also states that Shetty has posed a question whether the decision to ban me was communicated to me, and whether an opportunity was given to me to explain my side.”
The retired tweaker, who has coached the India women’s team and was a spin bowling coach with India A in 2018 and the BCCI’s National Cricket Academy (NCA) till recently, claimed that he had no idea that he had been banned by the MCA for life for speaking out against it. “Sir, to be honest, I did never know that a life ban was imposed on me by the earlier committee. May I therefore request you to provide me a copy of the resolution through which a life ban was imposed on me. Sir, I shall like to inform you that I had left my assignment by giving a notice of one month and which is one of the clauses of a contract between me & MCA. However, there was no clause in the contract through which I could be banned for the lifetime for leaving assignment midway.”
Protesting his ban, Powar said: “Sir, there are other renowned coaches who have left their assignments midway. But a lifetime ban was never imposed on them. Thus, singling me out for a life ban on this ground is not in order. Secondly, if I had expressed my displeasure at the inability of administrators to utilize my potential, can it be a cause for life ban? Also questioning someone’s potential can’t be treated as a crime and hence one cannot be penalized for the same.
“There are many instances wherein Mumbai players have expressed their displeasure on the functioning of the managing committee. But MCA didn’t impose a life ban on them for raising questions. I am aware that the current committee is not responsible for such high-handed actions taken in the past. But it can definitely take corrective actions by reversing the wrong decisions.
“I shall, however, like to state that one of the members of the current committee (name withheld) is witness to all these happenings. He was in the committee which banned me for lifetime (which of course I didn’t know). He was also part of the committee which sidelined me on the pretext of the resolution passed by the earlier managing committee.
“And now again, he is part of the Apex Council when secretary sir has sought the opinion of the council whether I should be allowed to appear before the CIC for an interview. However, it seems that he has preferred to maintain his golden silence. If he had informed the Apex council in time, this situation would not have arisen.
Powar claimed that the two-member Committee of Administrators (CoA), which ran the MCA’s affairs for almost nine months in 2018, had opined that the new managing committee had the authority to reverse the decision to ban him for a lifetime. “Isn’t it contradictory that if a cricketer expresses his displeasure on such an elected member, he will be penalized but an elected council member who has contributed in creating a tangle doesn’t have to fear anything? Sir, I am attaching with my mail a press report which states that CoA retired Justice Gokhale and Justice Kanade had expressed their opinion that ‘authority of reversing the resolution’s order would rest in the new managing committee’s hand whenever elected.’ I hope that he will not deny this now,” he wrote.
Making an appeal to revoke his ban, Powar concluded: “I humbly request you all to revoke my ban as per the opinion given by retired Justice VM Kanade and Justice Hemant Gokhale, which will provide me an opportunity to appear before the CIC for an interview. I am grateful to Shetty for appealing to the MCA president and secretary sir to give justice to an international cricketer and a national coach,” Powar concluded.