In Bangalore, the war games are on

It had better be good. The weeks ahead will be tough; New Zealand, even on the docile Indian pitches, will be slippery customers under their charismatic skipper Stephen Fleming. And then there’s the make-or-break journey Down Under (see stories on page 15), always the toughest tour for any cricketing team.

But there’s no mistaking the buzz around Bangalore. The Wired City has taken on an edge with the presence of possibly the most talented group of Indian cricketers. Certainly the most famous.

Out in the middle, though, there are no favourites, no celebrities. It’s been hard work for all concerned. That’s why Mohammad Kaif, the fittest Indian cricketer, arrives late for a media session, flops into a chair and says with a smile: ‘‘Stiff hoon yaar,’’ before adding, ‘‘But I am enjoying it.’’

‘‘These boys are being made to work like dogs’’, says a veteran photographer who thought he’d seen it all before. Asked whether they were in danger of disappearing at the end of such strenuous workout, fast man Zaheer Khan — notorious for his ability to put on weight — jokes: ‘‘We might, but I will definitely take longer than the others.’’

The man responsible for the exercise regime is the most reserved, publicity-shy South African you’ll meet. Greg King, the team’s new fitness trainer, is polite to a fault but mention that you’re a journalist and he looks for an escape route. ‘‘Please don’t get me wrong, it’s just that I am not very camera friendly. I like to be in the background, work quietly.’’

Or not so quietly, because you can hear him shout instructions and encouragement to the boys in the middle. And he’s already won fans. Left-arm spinner Murali Karthik says: ‘‘We thought it would be tough to maintain the high standards set by Adrian (Le Roux, King’s predecessor), but Greg has made an instant impact. The credit really goes to him.’’

Also basking in the Bangalore sunlight are the national selectors, who are delighted at how the camp shaped up, especially in terms of the democracy within. Brijesh Patel, Chairman of selectors, explains the rationale behind the camp: ‘‘It was a conscious attempt on our (BCCI’s) part to go forward with our plan of building Team India.’’

Patel’s colleague Kiran More chips in: ‘‘No one has been spared, the seniors are also stretching themselves looking at the juniors.’’ Perhaps not to the fullest because, even as More speaks, Kaif has completed three rounds of the field to the one by his captain Saurav Ganguly.

Never mind, because this is a ‘‘skills-specific’’ camp, as bowling coach Paras Mhambrey says. That means, to you and me, that bowlers and batsmen are being looked at separately. Though for purposes of convenience the players have been divided into four ‘teams’ — Purple, Blue, Black and Orange — the emphasis is on technical tips rather than inter-team matches.

Ex-captains Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar drop by to help out fast bowlers and batsmen in their own way. Kapil needles the bowlers: ‘‘You can run faster than me, can’t you?’’

Mhambrey, a surprise choice, is in awe of the team — the support staff. ‘‘The cricketers have been lucky to have a really professional set-up. John and Greg keep everything ready.’’

Before new boy Aavishkar Salvi bowls the next ball, Mhambrey asks him: ‘‘Do you want to bowl short?’’ The rookie’s enthusiastic ‘yes’ in reply brings a smile to the coach’s face. This is the spirit that will be needed of future Indian bowlers.

Though the bowlers are not being specifically instructed to target batsmen or bowl a particular line, the exuberance of youth prompts them to. Not at the seniors — there is still too much respect on that front — but at their peers. Punjab’s Amit Uniyal, one of nine recruited for net bowling, wasn’t in awe of the junior team-members. He forced his state mate Reetinder Sodhi into ducking, and actually hit Sanjay Bangar.

Good practice for either batsman if they make the tour of Australia, because short-pitched bowling will pretty much be the staple diet from likes of Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee. The team’s biggest batting problem is in the opening slot, with Virender Sehwag stating his preference to drop down the order. There are several options to replace him, among them Wasim Jaffer. ‘‘I am preparing for that (tour)’’, he says. ‘‘Practising with wet tennis balls and bowling machines. Need to cut down on shots like pull, you can’t really play Lee that way.’’

But it’s not just the bowling that the cricketers are preparing for; the fielders are being prepared for the vast size of the MCG and SCG stadia. Says Sodhi: ‘‘Greg’s been asking us to work on the shoulders in the gym. The big Aussie grounds require strong arms.’’

Strong arms, strong minds, big hearts. Much of the focus — certainly much more than ever before — has been on the players’ all-round development. TV pioneer Prannoy Roy was the first to talk to the cricketers, giving them tips on how to handle the media (‘nothing is ever off the record’). The other part of his speech focused on cricketers improving their sagging image, and the effects of this have been seen in the past few days.

Be good to children, they are your biggest fans, Roy told them, and they’ve responded with charity work involving kids. So if it’s an auction today, it is pledging for the cause of polio eradication the next and playing cricket with slum children the day after. Is this their response to Steve Waugh’s Udayan project? ‘‘No’’, says Ganguly. ‘‘We have been doing it in our own way but quietly.’’

Just like they’ve been doing it in Bangalore. It’s been a camp with a difference but everyone here — players, support staff, even media — knows that the training is only as good as what it translates into out in the field. The bets on that are being hedged, but for once there’s a reason to be optimistic.

Cricket videos to help Sachin remix his moves

Chandresh Narayanan

‘‘If you want to know the secrets of India’s best cricketers, they are here’’, says Subramaniam Ramakrishnan, pointing at the hard disk. These aren’t illicit photographs or tapes of tapped phone calls. Ramakrishnan documents the technique of Sachin, Saurav and others, capturing them on film for analysis and correction.

The Chennai-based videographer has been a regular at the camp, where he spends the whole day filming all 49 players and storing it on his CD. Practice over, he heads back to the videography room of the National Cricket Academy.

That’s where the real work starts. Groups of players and coaches — Gavaskar and Kapil Dev have made extensive use of the software — watch the footage; the coaches fill in their comments and the players each get a copy of the CD, with the embedded reports, to take home.

The film is viewed on cricket-specific software called SiliconCoach prepared by New Zealand bio-mechanist Joe Morrison. The software, now in use for two years, has some unique features: it can slow down the filming, making it easier to pick up mistakes and anomalies. Also, the player and his coach can have four split screens to compare different periods of performances at the nets.

‘‘Small things like feet movement and how straight your run-up or past side-on positions are can be easily tracked with this software, it’s really an individual analysis’’, says Ramakrishna. That’s how Dravid has noticed problems with his initial movement and with his backlift.

Of course, the camera never lies. And, because the system has a nasty habit of playing the great leveller as far as mistakes are concerned, not everyone’s happy all the time. After a bad day at the nets, Sachin Tendulkar sat through the film footage. And then told Ramakrishnan: ‘‘See, I’ve been batting badly at the nets. I am not happy at all, I need more time after the lay-off to re-group. Please do not store this on a CD.’’

MISSION AUSTRALIA: Ganguly’s ultimate test

Sandeep Dwivedi

LATE in 1999, then India skipper Sachin Tendulkar faced a scenario similar to what Saurav Ganguly faces today. The Kiwis at home, followed by the Aussie away. We narrowly won at home but, as one J.Y. Lele predicted, were thrashed Down Under. Four years later, much has changed in Indian cricket — foreign coach, back up staff, stable captain, fitter squad — but, as the team gears up for its most important tour of the season, some things have remained the same.

So, while India prides itself on the ‘‘best batting line-up’’, two of the best spinners and an emerging pace attack, the odds on Ganguly’s team — on paper one of the best teams to tour Australia — faring any better than Tendulkar’s are longer than McGrath’s run-up.

The outcome of the series is important not just for Ganguly and his men but also for coach John Wright’s training methods and those creative innovations at the camp. The talk sessions and yoga classes, which are being seen as new-age training methods today, will be in for some severe criticism if the team fails.

What raises the stakes is the ‘grudge’ element. Both teams have an axe to grind. India stopped Australians’ historic streak in 2001, only to be humiliated at the World Cup two years later. Add to this the several sub-plots — the one-on-one contests — and the mix turns more explosive. The two captains, despite their mutual admiration, won’t give an inch on the turf.

With so much to play for and prove, the antennae are up. Everyone will be waiting for Ganguly and Waugh to walk out for the toss on December 4 at Brisbane. That might be delayed, though, if Ganguly keeps Waugh waiting yet again…

Down Under, the game is won in the mind

Trevor Chesterfield

As the Indian cricketers prepare for their great campaign of the coming season, they would do well to remember the first over of the World Cup final in Johannesburg. Zaheer Khan had had a nightmare, spraying wides and no-balls all over the Wanderers track. Over complete, he was walking back when he crossed Matthew Hayden.

‘‘You’re the first’’, Hayden was supposed to have said, leaving Zaheer momentarily non-plussed. ‘‘Yours will be the first house they will target.’’

Hayden was wrong in his prediction, of course, but spot-on as far as effect went. The Aussies had heard about players’ houses being attacked earlier in the tournament and were not going to pass up the opportunity of using it to make the Indians play ‘catch up’ for the rest of the game.

Apocryphal or not, it is the sort of message which has the habit of delivering a mentally bruising knuckleduster blow to any opposition player and those attending the Indian pre-tour camp need to be aware of what to expect. With the Australians determined to extract full revenge for the 2-1 humiliation on the 2001 tour of India (and Johannesburg was only part of it), taking lessons in how to handle sledging, Aussie-style needs more than a fitness trainer, tough-minded coach or a psychologist to try and overcome such psychologically disarming verbal abuse.

It is not, as South Africa’s captain Graeme Smith learnt when making his Test debut against the Australian side of 2001/02 at Newlands in Cape Town, a matter of friendly banter. The ‘welcoming mat’ was a string of four letter words punctuated with a lot of advice on how to hold the bat (and where to put it). Shane Warne was the master of ceremonies on this occasion and Glenn McGrath was offering his support.

It is all a carefully concocted gameplan which explains something about the Australian way of doing things. If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. John Howard, their prime minister and a big cricket fan, is not too popular in South and South East Asia for his views in supporting the US in the war with Iraq, but at home he is ‘‘one of the boys’’.

And the Australian spectators are a tough mob as well. Pat Symcox, grizzled veteran and generally tough-minded guy, tells the story of when he was patrolling the boundary in Sydney when he was hit in the back by a partly eaten chicken leg. The inference here was that Symmo was himself a touch chicken in his approach to the game.

In this sense the crowd is also into playing the mind game with the touring team. From his days as a Test player, former South African captain Kepler Wessels knows all about the psychosomatic approach of the Australian crowds. They will at first appear to be full of bonhomie and then start targeting a player with teasing remarks which become more personal as the day’s play lengthens into a second session or, in limited-overs internationals, the second 15overs.

For the Indians, the plans will be specific. Saurav Ganguly will be reminded often enough of his failures of his first tour Down Under and that he did not feature as a Test player on that 1991/92 tour. It is not the experience that ‘Maharaja’ likes to remember.

High on the agenda will be Sachin Tendulkar. Neither Waugh, watching on TV, nor Ricky Ponting will forget that early dismissal in the final at The Wanderers. It was the sort of pull shot which has led to his downfall before — in Harare in 2001 it was in another final against the West Indies — and not for the first time did India go on to lose a final.

Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman are others to form part of the ‘targeting’ by the players and the crowds. Dravid because of his reputation as the most technically correct batsman in the world today and Laxman who, with Dravid, led that recovery in Kolkata.

What can also be expected is the way the Australian media will tackle the Indian players. If they can find what is assumed to be a flaw in the batting or bowling areas, and the fielding as well, why not expose it. It is typical of the bluster they enjoy creating: it gives the image that they are still the best.

During South Africa’s last tour of Australia (2001/02) Allan Donald’s fitness, rather than Australia’s own shortcomings exposed in Perth by the New Zealand team, became the bullying headlines. The media, and the Aussies at large, saw it as the centre of the psychological warfare. Hit the Safs where it hurts most: keep needling them about Donald’s fitness doubt. One biting headline: ‘Without Donald South Africa have only half an attack’.

Should an injury hit Tendulkar or Ganguly, even Dravid or Laxman, the Indians at home and in Australia are going to be told that they too are half a team. It’s all about mind games and, even without Shane Warne, Australia have all the verbal expertise they need.