India took a massive step ahead before getting into the semi-final of the ongoing Women’s World T20. They chose to rest Mithali Raj for the game and later, succumbed to an 8-wicket defeat which led them out of a tournament despite a terrific stint in the group stages.
This step of Indian team management seemed to have backfired when the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side failed to avenge their World Cup loss and went down by eight wickets.
Raj's manager publicly criticized captain Harmanpreet kaur on various fronts on Twitter. Raj's manager, Annisha Gupta, called Harmanpreet a "manipulative, lying, immature, undeserving captain" and also said the women's team believed in "politics not sport".
"Unfortunately @BCCIWomen believes in politics not sport. After witnessing what @M_Raj03 's experience could do in IndvIre it's shocking that they went with what pleases @ImHarmanpreet -a manipulative, lying, immature, undeserving captain," Gupta's tweet read, soon after India were knocked out of the Women's World T20.
In another tweet, she called Harmanpreet a "manipulative, lying, cheat".
On Friday evening, Gupta defended her statements and confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that the unverified Twitter account belonged to her. However, her account was deleted a couple of hours after she confirmed that the tweets were by her.*
"I'd like to say that I don't know what is going on on the inside but, now that the matches are being telecast, we can see who is performing and who is not," Gupta said.
"And we can see the kind of treatment that Mithali has received despite her brilliant performance and despite showing stability and consistency. The kind of treatment she has received is completely uncalled for and there is something deeper than we need to look at than just the statements that have been coming out.
"There are statements coming out that they wanted to give younger cricketers a chance but you don't drop your senior-most, most experienced players in a semi-final against a country like England. It goes beyond giving the youngsters a chance."
When asked if she regretted what she wrote earlier on Twitter, Tara said: "Maybe I was a little angry but I think it comes from the right place because I don't stand for unfair treatment. The kind of favouritism that has been shown is very apparent. I think everybody can see the kind of favouritism that is being shown to certain members of the team."