A coach’s job is to nurture talent. To get the best out of the player, guide them to fulfill their potential. Unfortunately, that isn’t always true. M Manu, a coach hired by the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA), has been arrested under the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act after 6 women cricketers registered a complaint against him. The worst part of this is the fact that many of the women he sexually abused were minors, and he was alleged to have been harbored by the board.
KCA accused of protecting predator
Manu, who was a former cricketer turned coach, was apparently misusing the power he had since 2018. He’d dupe these young women cricketers, claiming that if they wish to succeed, they’ll have to cooperate with him.
“Manu is a habitual offender and used his position as a coach to sexually assault minors. He was manipulating and grooming children all the time for his sexual desires. He exploited the children’s passion for the game and told them that they would have to cooperate with him to succeed,” one of the girls parent told Sportstar.
“When practice was going on at the nets at the KCA headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, he would take the victims to the gymnasium on the sly to perform lewd acts. The gym and rest room were the only places where there were no CCTV cameras and he pretty well knew that.”
“The KCA is protecting him as he is connected with a cricket club owned by a KCA official. The KCA didn’t take any action against Manu despite the complaints. The KCA’s statement that it wasn’t aware of the issue until the police visited its premises for investigation is false.”
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Insensitive KCA
Instead of apologizing for their error, KCA Secretary Vinod S. Kumar claimed that he wasn’t to be blamed and that someone was trying to tarnish his image. The KCA hired M Manu back, despite the coach being taken to court in 2022. The Kerala High Court had given him a clean chit after a victim changed her statement.
“The KCA became aware of the matter only after Kerala Police visited the KCA headquarters as part of their investigation. The KCA appointed M. Manu only after he was exonerated by the Kerala High Court. When the police case was first registered against him, many parents had given a statement to the police that the complaint was a fabricated one and it was alleged that the complainant was acting in vengeance after failing at selection trials. We appointed him for the second time following many requests from parents,” Vinod told Sporstar.
“The allegation that KCA is protecting Manu because he is the coach of my club is baseless. He was never part of the coaching set-up of my club. It is true that he represented my club as a player for a while but also played for other clubs before he became a coach.
“It is a bid to tarnish me and these allegations are made by people with vested interests. These people have tried to derail the Kerala Cricket League (KCL) by approaching the prospective bidders to withdraw from the auction and even contacted actor Mohanlal and asked him to stay away from the KCL.”
“The association would have taken action if the survivor had approached us directly, but she contacted the Childline and the KCA came to know of it only after police visited the premises for gathering evidence.”
Women coach hired
For all the flaws, the KCA is now taking some action. They’ve hired a women coach, bolstering their security by enhancing their surveillance cameras and making it compulsory that parents be present during training.
Vinod said a woman coach had been assigned to assist Manu. “Surveillance cameras were replaced with high resolution ones and the entire area came under surveillance. However, the cameras couldn’t be installed inside the gym and toilets for obvious reasons. We had also made it mandatory for parents to be present at the premises during training,” he concluded.
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