A lot of toil and labour clearly lies ahead
The BCCI in its 'vision statement' released almost exactly a year ago claimed that one of its future goals was to prepare a team capable of winning the World Cup in 2002
Sankhya Krishnan
26-Jul-2001
The BCCI in its 'vision statement' released almost exactly a year ago
claimed that one of its future goals was to prepare a team capable of
winning the World Cup in 2002. It was a noble sentiment, never mind
that the Board actually got the year of the competition wrong. The
statement also went on to add that long term planning for the said
event would start immediately. Other nations have already begun
planning an assault on the World Cup in February-March 2003, less than
19 months away. Sri Lankan coach Dav Whatmore suggested in his column
on CricInfo that he was using the ongoing triangular series to hunt
for the right balance of the side with the World Cup in mind.
Whatmore's Indian counterpart John Wright isn't willing to look as far
ahead just yet, considering his contract extends only for a year to
begin with. The BCCI's first priority is to identify a nucleus of
perhaps 20-22 players around whom India's plans can revolve. At the
moment the number of certainties for the World Cup are not more than
half a dozen which leaves plenty of scope for aspiring candidates to
advance their claims. The growth of the National Cricket Academy and
its regional offshots has helped to put a feeder line in place to
deposit youthful talent in the Indian team. In the last ten months,
beginning with the ICC KnockOut in Kenya, the selectors have thrown
the net wide in their pursuit of a suitable catch for the future.
Skipper Sourav Ganguly, who was dropped for four years after his
debut, says that it's easy to play for India these days. A startling
number of youngsters, Yuvraj, Zaheer, Dahiya, Sriram, Sodhi, Mongia,
Nehra, Badani, Shewag have been thrown in at the deep end, but few
have been able to swim to safety. The most gaping hole that still
remains to be plugged is in the lower middle order where the
collective disappearance of Azharuddin, Jadeja and Robin Singh has
left the team shorn of expertise to manouevre the climax of an
innings.
Apart from putting men on probation for vacancies, the team also has
to identify back-up players to cover for the loss of regulars in an
emergency. The separation of the phenomenally successful Tendulkar-
Ganguly pairing for the ongoing Coca Cola Cup clearly caught the
Indians on the wrong foot, with different opening pairs being used in
the first three games. The planners also have to factor in the
conditions in South Africa which hosts the World Cup. Whatmore makes
the cutting observation that "a quick look around the world will show
you that the successful teams that play in South Africa, Australia and
England have bowling attacks stacked full of fast bowlers who can bat
or batsmen that bowl seam up." The Indians however have a
preponderance of batsmen who bowl spin which is a warning signal. The
upcoming tour of South Africa in October will be a barometer to gauge
the capabilities of individual players and sort out the relative
merits of newcomers on trial.
It's not all about just hitting upon the ideal combination of players
though; if that were enough, selection committees around the world
could compete for the Cup. One still has to extract the best out of
them, both as individuals and as a team, which is what the coach's job
is all about. India have been ritually slaughtered on past tours to
South Africa, winning only one of 11 ODIs against the Proteas in their
own territory. To construct such castles in the air as winning the
World Cup would seem the ravings of an unbalanced mind. "The loftier
the building the deeper the foundation must be," said Thomas Kempis
and the brooding Wright has sought to lay as deep a foundation as
permissible in eight months in harness.
Meticulous planning, hankering for data about past trends, using
software to analyse the games of his players and the opposition,
emphasis on togetherness off the field, constant drilling of a 'back
to the basics' refrain, giving fitness workouts a pre-eminent place in
the scheme of things and making practice fun with innovative drills
are Wright's hallmarks. Results however are the bottom line and going
into the Coca Cola Cup in Sri Lanka, India had won 10 of 15 ODIs
during his tenure. But three successive defeats in the ongoing
competition have completely ripped the sheen off any lingering
memories of those victories. "Plans are only good intentions unless
they immediately degenerate into hard work," said management guru
Peter Drucker. A lot of toil and labour clearly lies ahead.