John Wright: happy to be an `Indian'

By G. Viswanath

MUMBAI, MAY 8. John Wright, who played the `Kiwi hand' in India's win over the mighty Australia and remained some a sort of a back room boy for seven months, is back in business.

Wright, appointed the Indian team coach last November, kept his word by staying in the background and letting Sourav Ganguly call the shots. He, it must be said, contributed immensely to India's series victories against Zimbabwe and Australia. And now after almost a month's rest in the pleasant temperatures of Christchurch, Wright is back, looking fresh and all set to take on the job at hand.

He had gone home a pooped up, but a happy man at the end of the series against Australia. He returned to India on Monday night to take charge of the Indian team (at Bangalore from May 13) that is scheduled to play eight Tests, three tri-series in Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and South Africa, a three-match series against Australia at the Colonial Stadium, Melbourne and the three Test series against England; all in a period of nearly seven months, starting from June and ending before Christmas.

Wright is fully aware of India's record overseas. ``I don't know why India has not done well overseas. It's always tough touring Australia. Playing away from home presents special challenges. I think we have to stick to the basics and if anything, the batsmen should adapt and move a little bit more. There has to be some self-discipline, also critical will be the shot selection. The opening partnership becomes very important while playing away from home. And in bowling we need Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Agarkar and whoever is the fourth to be picked, to put their hands up and bowl really well. The bowlers also have to be backed by good fielding (catching). Ideally we have got to be playing two spinners.''

``Obviously there must be reasons for India finding the overseas tours tough and I am interested in finding out (from the players) what those reasons are. That will be one of the discussions in Bangalore. I am not interested in excuses. If there is a problem we will solve it. We will work out ways and plans to play better. If we have to go up the world ladder we have to win away from home. And from what I have seen so far, we are capable of doing it.''

Wright will be giving top priority to the fitness aspect in the Bangalore camp. ``Fitness, running between the wickets, catching and fielding will be given priority. We have to target the fitness levels of the fast bowlers.

``When you compare the fitness levels of our bowlers with McGrath, Gillespie and the like, we are not up there yet. One or two have not made the camp... Prasad and Surinder (Bagal). There is competition in that area. They are not necessarily out of my thinking any way.''

In a half-an-hour chat with The Hindu at the Cricket Club of India, Wright talked about India's performance against Australia, waxed eloquent on Laxman's batting and Harbhajan's bowling, India's fighting qualities and the confidence and capacity to make a breakthrough in Test series abroad. He said playing `good and hard cricket' should be the purpose and that results would follow.

``Personally I don't like to talk about winning. We just have to fight hard. We have to play the same way as we did against Australia. If we play up to our potential we can beat good sides. My job is really to try and help the boys reach their potential individually and as a team.''

`A privilege working here'

After working with the Indian team for two home series, Wright is pleased to be part of Indian cricket. ``There is plenty of talent. The boys are good to work with. They don't seem to have big egos. They don't get carried away. That's one of my job, to make sure they don't get carried away. Zimbabwe was a series we could have always won at home. Australia was a big challenge.

``I think we proved that we can play good cricket and that we can fight. I feel very privileged to work in India because cricket doesn't enjoy such a passion anywhere else in the world, and to be part of the national team is a huge honour. I have always said that. The one thing I want the boys to realise is that they have to play for the people of India. That's the most important thing. They have been given a huge responsibility.

``I was very happy with the players' attitude. I think they conveyed to the Indian people that they will fight as a team and are proud to play for India. That's what I was pleased about. I had a lot of help from Chetan Chauhan and Andrew Leipus. It's a good team. Results can go either way, but my planning is geared towards team effort. It's wrapped around trying to get the basic skills organised.''

Wright had apprehensions initially. ``At the start of the series, one looked at Australia as a formidable team. We were always a little bit concerned about Anil's (Kumble) absence. That's because of what he had done in the last series (1998) against Australia. So to beat Australia in a Test series, I suppose, was a great effort by the boys. I don't think we actually played smart cricket in the first Test. We did not bowl well and that really took the game away from us. We nearly got back with the brilliance of Sachin (Tendulkar) whose dismissal was really a freak one. He batted beautifully in that Test match. And I must admit things did not look bright at the end of the second day in the Kolkata Test.''

About the one-day series he said: ``It was disappointing. When we were 2-1 up, we should have finished them off really. We have got to look at the way we bowled in the first 15 overs and batted in the last ten overs. That were the key parts of the game. It was not in one or two games, but three or four. We did not do well as well as we could have.

``But, what the series, I think, has shown is that we do have players of special brilliance who are in my opinion definitely of world class, particularly in batting. Ganguly was disappointing, but he is world class, so are Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman.

``Laxman's knock in Kolkata was the inspiration really, inspiration for the whole series, coupled with great support from Rahul (Dravid). We have to talk about the batting order issues etc. We have Rahul at No. 6 and we look a pretty strong side.

``The bottom line is that you must have a very solid, well balanced side for a Test match. What that means is that the team has to perform well in India as well as abroad. To be able to do that successfully you do what's best for the team. That's got to be the attitude.''

All praise for Laxman

Wright was all praise for Laxman. ``I could not believe the quality of his play in the nets. We had two nets in New Delhi before the first Test against Zimbabwe. And I could not believe the quality of his strokes and his clean hitting. It was just special... you see it in great players. He got quick runs (18 not out) in the first innings of that first Test.

``He loves to bat. It's hard to get the bloody bat out of his hand and make him bowl or do anything else. I think he is a great example. One thing I like about him is that he has done well in domestic cricket and that actually shows that there is value in the domestic system and also value in playing domestic cricket. Laxman has shown that by scoring hundred after hundred one can become a great Test match player.''

About the selection of the teams for the Test series against Australia he said: ``I don't like making players bat out of position. I go for the meetings, but don't have a vote.

`` We selected horses for courses a little bit. It's tough not selecting Hirwani for the first Test, may be we should have. Then Raju did a good job in Kolkata and Kulkarni did the same in Chennai. Our plan was to keep the Australian batsmen quiet. We knew they would come at us. Harbhajan Singh is an attacking bowler. So both, Raju and Kulkarni, did a great job. And actually Sairaj Bahutule's debut was very, very impressive. He didn't get a lot of wickets, but he did not get hammered like some leg spinners do in their debut. Rahul Sanghvi was a little bit unfortunate. He got caught in a hurricane of a partnership. The guy is a quality bowler.''

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : Ganguly geared up for tough tours ahead
Next     : Three Aussies 'approached' during Chennai Test