NEWS
MATCH REPORTS
STAT SHEET
DIARY
HOT LINKS
OTHER SPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
BOOKS & THINGS
DEAR REDIFF

The Cricket Interview/Robin Singh

'On flat tracks, there's not much the bowler can do...'

But what ails the team? A lot has been said about the lack of killer instinct etc...

I don't think that's true, the people here in India, the fans, seem to think we are not talented, we don't have that class, that's just not true. It's just that we were losing. Today, when you win against Pakistan in Toronto, people ask how come? But it's always been there, that ability, we have lost too many close games that we should not have lost, that's the only thing. Bottom line is, you have to win. You win, everything is fine, how you win doesn't matter.

But close games are a bit of a tragedy for India, there have been so many....

Close games... yeah, well, it really depends... people say it's nerves, people say it's how you cope with the pressure. There are so many small things, sometimes decisions don't go your way, you try to play to a plan, it may not work. The next day it may work, you know what I mean? I think, in the end, you have to just take it as it comes. Unfortunately, when you are losing, things seem to be going the other way.

How important is the pitch, in terms of results achieved? In Toronto, for instance, our bowlers were menacing while not so in Pakistan. So should we go in for those kind of pitches?

I think we were more suited for Toronto's pitches, our team was such that we didn't have to play more spinners. It suited us, those conditions. Whereas Pakistan had two regular spinners who were also batsmen. So they had no choice, they had to play both Saqlain Mushtaq and Shahid Afridi, they could not drop a batsman for a seam bowler because the batting would have become much weaker.

Fortunately for us, Saurav and I, we were both batsmen who could bowl seam, so straightway we had five bowlers without playing an extra bowler. Basically we had more options than them, and we played much better cricket than them.

The last match in Pakistan, the mayhem. Was there anything we could have done differently?

Yeah, unfortunately, there we did not get a big score, it was a good batting wicket, and the bowling did not have much to do. As was with us in Toronto, there everything clicked for them. But yes, it was a good batting wicket, and we should have scored at least 300 runs. We did not, and they went ahead and played very very positively. After the first five or six overs they realised they could do anything they wanted, they can just go for the bowling and after that, they didn't really pull back.

About our bowling being thrashed, well, that guy, Afridi, was batting so well that day, there was nothing much we could have done. Everybody who came in to bowl went for sixes, there was just no way.... I mean, the same guy, in Toronto, was struggling against our bowling, until the last game when he decided to just have a go. And it clicked for him, the same technique. But that's the way, some days you go out and shell the bowling, some days you play tentatively and you get out.

Considering that every batting order relishes our bowling, do you think our bowling can be strengthened in anyway?

No, that's just the way the teams are playing the game today. You always have a chance with them. There is no question of strengthening your bowling or not strengthening your bowling. The fact is, that's the way one-day cricket is played now, and if your get flat tracks like you do in the subcontinent, there's not much a bowler can do initially. Even if you bowl a good line, sometimes you get hit, and naturally when you start getting hit you try to do something different, and again go for runs.

There is nothing much you can do in this kind of a situation, for everybody is taking so much of chances. Sometimes they get out first ball, for example the first game in Sri Lanka, Jayasuriya got out first ball, it can happen. You might be consistent, yet the same player may get out under 10 in all the three games or four games he plays, to the same bowler. It really depends. Look at Afridi, I don't think he is in the... yes, he hits the ball as hard as Jayasuriya, but I don't think he is in the same class.

Why can't our batsmen play a similar game, considering our calibre?

I don't think we are schooled to play like that. We are not brought up to play the way they play, we don't play cricket that way. Sri Lanka have always played their cricket this way, even their Test cricket they used to play like this. If you see their record, till today they are not a good Test side. If you get a good track, helpful track, I don't they will get more than 250 runs.

Thing is they have got more exposure now. They have got so exposed to international cricket, everybody is playing in England, all over the place, naturally you learn. You become so much more professional. You then have a professional coach, physio, have a doctor, things are different. We are also moving with the times, actually.

But not fast enough?

It's not like that. You cannot just unearth talent, and say they are not developing fast enough. It depends how well people are able to adjust. If you look at the Sri Lankan team, they have hardly changed their team in the past three, four years. So everyone is confident of their place, they don't have extra pressure. It takes a long while, three years is a long time in international cricket, each player would have played 70 to 100 one-dayers, right? Jayasuriya, when he came into the side, he was more of bowler than a batsman, it's only lately that he has become a batsman. So you can develop into other things, provided you are given a long run.

Do you think you will move from one-dayers, to the national Test team?

I don't know, I have no idea. If I get a chance, why not? I really don't know, it is up to the selectors.

There's this talk of having two teams, one for the Tests and one for the one-dayers. Australia in fact is experimenting with it. Do you think we should try something similar?

I don't think that's a workable idea, I think we should have one captain, whether its for a one-day side or for a Test match. Because if you have a captain who is good enough for a Test side, he is definitely good enough for a one-day side too. I don't think it is going to work, not for us at least, I don't think we have that much talent the way Australia has. At the moment they are able to field two top class sides, we cannot do that, so let's face facts.

'I don't think the umpiring was great, in Pakistan...'