Gavaskar slams India's 'casual' approach
Cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar added insult to India's injury worries on Tuesday, saying Sourav Ganguly's men lacked commitment in the two matches they played in the Sharjah tri-series.
Gavaskar blamed the team's casual approach and tactical blunders for the defeat against Sri Lanka and the narrow win over Zimbabwe in the first leg of the preliminary round, and blasted Ganguly for dropping down the order.
"As a captain Ganguly has to lead from the front and not shirk the responsibility," Gavaskar wrote in his widely syndicated column.
Gavaskar, who holds the world record of 34 Test centuries and was the first batsman to score 10,000 Test runs, said the decision to open with Rahul Dravid against Zimbabwe on Sunday was unpardonable.
"The kind of experimentation that is going on gives the impression the Indians think the Sharjah tournament is as good as won and so they can take it casually," he wrote.
"Splitting the successful opening partnership of Ganguly and (Sachin) Tendulkar made no tactical sense because Dravid could not score runs at the same pace."
India's gamble ended in disaster as Dravid fractured a finger on the left hand and was ruled out for the rest of the tri-series.
Dravid, an accomplished Test batsman, may also miss the inaugural Test against Bangladesh which starts in Dhaka on November 10.
India have replaced him with young batsman Mohammad Kaif, who will fly to the UAE in a couple of days.
The second leg of the tri-series begins on Wednesday with a match between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. Sri Lanka, with two wins under their belts, will qualify for Sunday's final if they put it across Zimbabwe. In that case, India have to beat Zimbawe on Thursday to join the Sri Lankans in the final.
Ganguly said he dropped down the order because he had not done well as an opener in Sharjah.
"I thought I will be more useful in the middle-order here," he said. "My interest is to see the team win. There is no point scoring a century as an opener if the team does not win."
Gavaskar said he was disappointed the Indians are not building on the victories over world champions Australia and South Africa in the recent ICC knock-out tournament in Kenya.
"Instead, we have senior players taking a day off from practice before a crucial match. Not much else can be said if the skipper himself is going to skip the nets," he wrote.
Gavaskar added the delay in naming the foreign coach did not help matters.
"The current coach (Anshuman Gaekwad) knows he is temporary, so he will not force anyone to come for nets," he wrote. "It will be interesting to see if the players adopt the same attitude when the overseas coach takes over."
Indian officials, who were to choose between John Wright of New Zealand and Greg Chappell of Australia on Monday, postponed their decision because another Australian, Geoff Marsh, had renewed his interest in the job.
"Marsh, who had initially declined, has told us he wants to be considered," Indian cricket chief A.C. Muthiah told reporters in Madras on Monday.
As the return leg gets under way in Sharjah, the focus is on the match-fixing report which federal investigators said they will submit to the Indian sports ministry on Wednesday.
Newspaper reports said four Indians -- Mohammad Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Manoj Prabhakar and Ajay Sharma -- besides a few overseas players have been named in the report.
Mail Cricket Editor
