‘Sachin, Sourav dropped, not rested’
Kapil Dev says that they have not played that much cricket in the last six months that they needed to be rested. They were dropped, reports Nilankur Das.
Soon after landing in the city on an 'improvement mission', India's World Cup winning skipper Kapil Dev delivered a bouncer. "Rules cannot be different for different players. For me there are no half measures. They (Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly) are either in or out. There is nothing called 'rested'," Kapil told reporters at the airport on being asked for his comments on Ganguly and Sachin being rested for the One-day series against Bangladesh.
"They have not played that much cricket in the last six months that they needed to be rested. They were dropped," he added. Kapil, though, said "no comments" to similar questions later on at the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), where he dropped by to monitor the Zonal Cricket Academy trainees working out at the gym. Kapil, the chairman of the National Cricket Academy (NCA), and Lalchand Rajput, director NCA, are here to monitor the East Zone ZCA trainees practicing under coaches Pranab Roy and Rajesh Dani.
On the upcoming Bangladesh tour, Kapil said India needed a good series to regain confidence. "The Indian team is not that confident at the moment. They need a good series and they should ensure that there are no further goof-ups like in the World Cup."
Kapil, who inspected the gymnasium and training facilities at the Eden Gardens, said he was satisfied with the arrangements. "During our playing days, we did not have access to such facilities. We had nothing to do during the off season. Now with such facilities in place, players can keep themselves on the ball round the year," he said.
Dravid, Shastri arrive
SKIPPER RAHUL Dravid and team manager Ravi Shastri arrived in the city for the five-day conditioning camp for the Indian team before their trip to Bangladesh. The camp begins at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday. Dravid and Shastri frisked away amidst tight security. Rahul was accompanied by wife Dr Vijeta and son Samit. Others who arrived here were bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad, fielding coach Robin Singh, administrative manager Surendra Bhave, masseur Ramesh Mane, video analyst S Ramakrishnan and logistics manager Russel Radhakrishnan. The players will arrive on Tuesday.