India chief eyes home consolation

India’s cricket chief gave a robust defence of the national team Monday after the humiliating Test losses in Australia, saying players would soon set the record straight on home soil. “Australia played better in their home conditions, it will be different when they come to India,” Narayanaswamy Srinivasan, president of the under-fire Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said. “New Zealand is coming to India next and that will be followed by England and Australia. We will beat these three teams on our own soil. They cannot beat us here and we will feel very happy,” he told the Press Trust of India news agency. Australia smashed India by an innings and 37 runs inside three days in the third Perth Test on Sunday to clinch the four-match series, after winning in Melbourne by 122 runs and Sydney by an innings and 68 runs. It was India’s seventh successive Test loss abroad, following their 4-0 rout in England last year, in a dismal run that has taken the shine off their limited-overs World Cup victory at home last April.
Srinivasan, who owns the Chennai Super Kings franchise in the Indian Premier League, cited the example of India’s 5-0 rout of England in a one-day series last October. “England won in England, but they came here within a month and lost 5-0,” he said. “After our loss in England, I had said we will beat them when they visit India. That’s what happened.” India are not due to play an overseas Test series until the tour of South Africa in late 2013 and the next home series against New Zealand in September is still eight months away. Former captain Kapil Dev had on Sunday slammed the cash-rich BCCI for its short-sighted policies, saying its obsession with profits was ruining the game in India.
“They (BCCI) are doing extremely well when it comes to making money and controlling world cricket,” Dev said. “But what is the use if your team fails to win matches abroad?” India’s chairman of selectors Krishnamachari Srikkanth said he was “totally devastated” by the defeats in both England and Australia. “The batting has failed to click,” Srikkanth told reporters. “It is the same problem we had in England. In the last two series, the batsmen have struggled to find form. This defeat is saddening.”
Srikkanth parried questions on the future of its ageing batsmen, especially Venkatsai Laxman, who has managed just 102 runs in six innings so far in the series at an average of 17. “Our next Test series is in September. We do not know what will happen at that time,” he said. “If Laxman decides to retire, I cannot say anything. But we will take stock of the situation only in September.” The fourth and final Test starts in Adelaide on January 24, which Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni will miss to serve a one-match ban due to slow over-rates in the previous Test. Vice-captain Virender Sehwag will lead in Dhoni’s absence. The Test will be followed by two Twenty20 matches against Australia and a one-day tri-series also featuring Sri Lanka.

Dhoni backs besieged coach Fletcher
PERTH: Suspended captain M.S. Dhoni has backed coach Duncan Fletcher as the right man to turn around the fortunes of the beleaguered Indian cricket team, despite a run of dismal overseas tours. Down 3-0 after successive innings defeats in Sydney and Perth, the Indians have already lost the series but have one final chance to redeem themselves in the fourth Test in Adelaide, starting on Tuesday. But another loss will condemn them to two clean sweep 4-0 defeats in a row on foreign soil after an embarrassing tour of England. They will be without their skipper for the last Test, following his one match suspension by the International Cricket Council for his second slow over rate infraction in 12 months during the third Test at the WACA Ground. Pressure is not only mounting on India’s misfiring and ageing top order, but also on the feisty Fletcher, who has seen his team win just two of nine Tests during the early part of his two-year tenure. Both wins were at home against the lowly West Indies and are not enough to gloss over seven straight overseas defeats, four by an innings, since Fletcher took over last year. India was the top-ranked Test side in the world when Fletcher took the reins, but will drop to third when the official ICC rankings are next released. His first series at the helm saw the Indians lose all four Tests in England and Fletcher’s record as a coach in Australia is even worse, with 12 losses from 13 Tests including his time at the helm of England. As Indian greats like Kapil Dev, Bishan Bedi and Sourav Ganguly lined up to lambast India’s insipid performances, Dhoni said Fletcher was the right man for the job. “He’s a great guy to have,” Dhoni said. “He’s one of the most experienced coaches around, the small technical things he knows about bowling and batting, it’s very crucial to have. “It’s not like he has become the coach and we have lost two series and he’s to be blamed for all the defeats, it’s up to the 11 players to go out and perform.” However, former Australian Test batsman Marcus North wrote in an internet column this week that the Indians had gone backwards under Fletcher. “Team India has been unravelling ever since the departure of Gary Kirsten who, to his credit, found a way to relate and bond this team of champion individuals into a champion team,” North wrote. “Kirsten’s replacement, Duncan Fletcher, on the other hand, has managed to undo all of Kirsten’s hard work. “Team unity looks low and relationships are being tested.” Both Bedi and Dev said India’s Test performances were suffering due to the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s obsession with Twenty20 cricket and its financial rewards. Ganguly said the Indian Test team needed a major overhaul. AFP