Team India camp begins Wednesday

Team India will explore novel ways of training as the cricketers set off for a surprise destination outside Bangalore city on Wednesday to kick-off the conditioning camp for next month's tri-series in Sri Lanka.

"Tomorrow morning, the team will leave for a place outside Bangalore for teaming up and doing a lot of physical training. It will not be open to the media," trainer Gregory King told reporters on Tuesday.

King said the team management favours adopting new techniques of training, keeping in view its usefulness.

"It is a team management decision to try out new techniques. In the past too we tried out a few new things which produced positive results," he said.

"I want to keep the players unprepared at what we are going to do in next three days. It will not be very different from the camps we had in last three years. We would like to try out something different," he said.

The players will be back to the NCA premises in Bangalore on the evening of July 28.

The next morning they will be put through medical and skill assessments apart from body composition assessment.

King said since the three-day training session would be very demanding, there would be a recovery session -- yoga, swimming and teki -- for the cricketers in the evening on July 29.

"Teki is also a good method of training. It is all about balance and focus. The players won't have normally encountered these activities before," he said.

After the recovery session, the media will be briefed about the surprise training camp held outside the city.

On July 30, there will be a closed door fitness assessment session at the NCA followed by outside activity in the afternoon.

The team will have a trip to the defence sports unit close to the city the next day.

The conditioning camp will conclude on August 1 with outside activity.

Coach Greg Chappell, who is currently holidaying in the United States, will join the team on August 4.

King made it clear that choosing a place outside Bangalore had nothing to do with the facilities at the NCA.

"NCA is not lacking in anything. We are only trying to do something new which I am not able to elaborate," he said.

So far, Irfan Pathan, Suresh Raina, V V S Laxman, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh have reported at the camp and the rest are expected to join in the evening.

On Sachin Tendulkar's fitness, King said the master batsman is perfectly all right.

"John (Gloster) told me Sachin's fitness level is normal.

"The man himself would not have been available if he was not fit. From my own perspective, I will be watching Sachin in action," he said.

 Commenting on the fitness of bowlers L Balaji and Murali Kartik, King said he will see the Balaji at Bangalore while Kartik is in the early stage of his rehabilitation and will take some time to recover.

About Kumble, the trainer said the ace spinner's fitness is not an issue, as he is currently playing county cricket in England.

Explaining the reason behind choosing Bangalore ahead of Chennai for the training camp, King said the Tamil Nadu capital was not selected as a venue due to the threat of rain.

"Last time, we wasted some days due to interruption by rain. Besides, this time we have a lot of time to acclimatize in Colombo before the tournament," he said.