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By Peter Della Penna
An email written today by USACA General Manager Manaf Mohamed states
the Robin Singh has been named coach of the USA Women’s team for the
2011 ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier next month in Bangladesh. The email
was obtained from a source. It was written to the USACA board and a
host of women’s players. As recently as five days ago, Mohamed said that
Linden Fraser was going to be coaching the USA Women’s team in
Bangladesh.
During an
October
5 phone call, Mohamed was asked who would be running the USA Women’s
camp scheduled for October 14-16 and responded, “That would be the
coach, Linden Fraser. He’s the coach.” When asked if Fraser would be the
coach for the team in Bangladesh, Mohamed responded, “As of right now
yes, he’ll be the coach for Bangladesh.”
Image (right) - Robin Singh will be coaching the USA Women's team in Bangladesh. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]
Fraser went to Barbados with the USA Women’s squad in August to serve
as coach during their 10-day training camp. He is also the coach of the
highly successful Tri-State Lynx team which won this year’s USACA
national championship. More than half of the 18-player USA squad plays
for the Lynx while several other USA players are known to train with the
Lynx. Fraser had been working with most of these women on a weekly
basis since January by conducting conditioning and coaching sessions.
Fraser is an ECB Level II Certified coach.
“I have nothing to do with that,” said Krish Prasad, chairman of the
USACA Cricket Committee, of the decision to have Robin Singh be the
women’s team coach in Bangladesh. Prasad says that up until he received
today’s email, he fully believed that Fraser was the women’s team coach
and would be going to Bangladesh. “I heard it when the team got the
email. I was very surprised to hear that. Nobody I know was involved
with that.” A call to Fraser’s phone late Monday afternoon went straight
to voice mail while a call to Mohamed seeking comment also went to
voice mail.
Prasad went on to say that as far as he knows, there have not been
any plans made to fly the women’s squad to Florida this weekend for a
final camp to be used for selection and without Fraser being involved,
he doesn’t know how USACA will be able to pick the best 14 players to go
to Bangladesh. “Robin Singh doesn’t know who these women are,” said
Prasad.
Singh served as head coach of the USA U-19 team in Ireland at the
2011 ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifier where they finished a disappointing
seventh, failing to qualify for the 2012 ICC U-19 World Cup. He
currently serves as the head coach of the IPL’s Mumbai Indians, who won
the 2011 Champions League T20 on Sunday.