Kapil’s report will stress need to re-look at domestic cricket

Q: Would you agree that it was the failure of the senior players which contributed to India’s disastrous tour ?
A: Yes. There’s no point in not owning up failures. When we began the tour, I thought Srinath would be able to distinguish himself. He is experienced and has pace enough to thrive on bouncy pitches.
Even though he consistently provided breakthroughs, he bowled many loose deliveries and was inconsistent. I was most disappointed with him. But he carried most of the bowling burden.

Q: What about Anil Kumble ? He didn’t pickmany wickets, especially in the Tests…
A: Kumble is a freak bowler. He is hard-working and has a terrific track record. But his record abroad is not brilliant. He is not a turner of the ball. His wickets are mostly earned via bat-pad chances. Also, he is always there, bowling a probing line. But on these wickets, I thought he could not adjust to the bounce. Also, he went for a few runs on these pitches.

Q: Dravid was a failure on the tour. How do you explain that ?
A: We needed Dravid to click. In the beginning, he had a couple of dismissals edging the deliveries behind. From then on, he was not sure of his off-stump. If you look at his dismissals, 90 per cent were caught behind. Once the doubts grew, he became stiffer and unsure. He is an intelligent player and dedicated to the team’s cause. Everyone has some slump or the other in his career. Great players come out of such slumps faster. I would like to see Dravid come back with a bang.

Q: Why do you think he became unsure of hisoff-stump ?
A: As Most players in the world, at some time or the other, have doubts about their off-stump. It could happen to anyone. With Dravid, the doubts grew as he failed.

Q: With your major players failing, it must have been annoying and frustrating.
A: Yes, But at times they also had my sympathy. You must remember, besides Ganguly, Tendulkar and Dravid, it was a batting line-up with no experience…It’s a young team. I would not fault them for not trying. The day we were to leave for Adelaide in the afternoon, 8-10 players still wanted to go to the nets and practice. As a coach, I feel happy when I see them doing so. I wanted them to relax and enjoy and be positive about their cricket.

Q: Do you think captaincy affected Tendulkar’s batting ?
A: I don’t think so. I think he was unlucky throughout the series. There were so many decisions which went against him. It was not only you or me or the rest of the team, even the Australians sympathised. It’s easy to go against theumpires on these things, but I would not go that far. I would only say he was more wronged than doing wrong.

Q: What is your opinion of Tendulkar as captain ?
A: He is improving. It is not as if he or anybody else doesn’t make mistakes. But you learn and improve. I am happy to see from Chandigarh (Kapil’s first game as India coach) to now, Sachin has improved. He has started to show his emotions. When he gets annoyed, he shows it in the dressing room. He doesn’t keep it inside him all the time. In the last game, he saw a catch dropped and you could see he was disgusted. A captain must show his team what he expects from them.
There are a few areas where he could do better. Like in press conferences, he could be more forthcoming. But the media has become all pervasive. As captain, he needs to be careful. He could volunteer more to the media.

Q: People perceive you as a winner. But having taken up this job, do you worry that you could be risking your reputation of 20 years ?
A: I neverworry about these things. When they asked me to take up the job, I took some time in deciding because my wife was unhappy. She cried for six hours. Her contention was that we have a good life, were doing well in business, so why take up this job ? But once I said yes, I was prepared to risk everything my time, business and reputation.

Q: But if the team keeps losing…
A: It doesn’t mean I should duck my responsibility. My job is to improve the team. And I will. I promise you, before I leave, I will make fighters out of them. I want to change their attitude. It may not happen quickly, but it will happen. What has happened in world cricket is not that we have gone down, other teams have improved enormously. They have raised their standards. And they are doing it all the time.

Q: What is the solution ?
A: The solution is simple. The quantity of cricket is unimportant. The quality is. We need better facilities and pitches. Domestic cricket too needs change. I will present it all in myreport.

Q: Do you think you will get support from the board ?
A: Why not. I have no doubt they would support everything that is good for Indian cricket. I have no doubt the areas in which I am looking for improvement, I will have the support of the board.

Q: But some board officials have gone after you in recent times. Is it a good omen ?
A: There will always be differences. If some people have an ego, it is their problem. I am not getting worked up on that. I am only looking to improve the team and I am sure on those things, I would have support. I am more interested in what happens on field. I am worried about things which could lift the standard of Indian cricket. Small ego problems or issues outside cricket, I am not interested in them.

Q: There are many who feel Mohammed Azharuddin should have been in the side ?
A: There will always be two opinions on a point. When I walked into the Indian dressing room, I was surprised that for someone who has played cricket for solong and captained the team for 10 years, Azhar was not a popular player in the team.