Gavaskar views the team to be sent to NCA

Sunil Gavaskar >has taken it rather hard on the shortcomings of the Indian cricket team against the short ball during the World Twenty20 match held in West Indies. He suggested that the team be professionally more trained at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore in order to fix their difficulties. For the second time in a row, India bowed out of the World Twenty20 without even winning a single Super Eights game, which made it a record of six consecutive losses since last year.

India won their group games but lost to Australia, Sri Lanka and West Indies in the second stage. Along with their difficulties in facing the bouncers, India was average on their fielding and running between the wickets. The opponents got to know about their weakness and exploited their overall performance too. Gavaskar views that players who were uncomfortable in facing the short ball should be sent to the National Cricket Academy, where they can practice against such balls either through young bowlers bowling towards them or through a bowling machine from 16 to 18 yards.

He also adds that the players are at present under contract with the BCCI so nobody can claim that they actually need a break, or don’t need a break if they haven’t performed as per the expectations. Nonetheless, they need to visit the academy and hone their skills against the short ball techniques.

Apart from Gavaskar, many of the former Indian players criticized the performance of the team, saying that the performance of the team was less in the tournament than the expectation where the quality of cricket is much higher than the IPL matches. MS. Dhoni,> the captain of the Indian cricket team even said that the constant traveling connected with the IPL and parties took the toll on the body. Given a five day gap between the IPL and the World Twenty20 matches, the players rarely got time to relax, but this statement was not taken seriously by Gavaskar. For Gavaskar, the member of the IPL’s governing council, nobody should blame the IPL for the poor performance of the team.

If that was the case, Sri Lanka would not have been playing in the semi finals or as a matter of fact other teams too like Australia and England. Some of the Australian players were in the IPL and he does not think that less gap is the key to poor performance of the team. T20 is a format where one needs to be good during the game and if he is not good; his losing the match is for sure. Former players like Mohammad Azharuddin and Madan Lal too felt that Dhoni was simply making blind excuses by referring to the IPL parties and Gavaskar too agreed. The excuse used by people saying the IPL parties were the reason behind poor performance of the team is completely biased.

Nevertheless, Gavaskar did not comment on coach Gary Kirsten’s statement that he was more fit player than other team members, and Gavaskar simply said that he would wait for the coach to communicate his thoughts in an official manner to the BCCI.