No excuses about pitch: Shastri
CHELMSFORD: India coach Ravi Shastri asserted that the team does not believe in complaining and will not make tough conditions an excuse for its performances in what is expected to be a gruelling five-test series against England.
There were reports that the Indian team management is not happy with pitch and outfield at the Essex county ground, the venue of their only warm-up game that was curtailed to three days owing to a heat wave in England.
Shastri said his team doesn’t make excuses. “My philosophy is very simple - (in) your country, I don’t ask questions. (In) my country, you don’t ask. I said (to groundsmen) leave it, and don’t take anything off,” Shastri said during a media conference.
“One thing, on this trip, you will never see this Indian team giving an excuse regarding conditions or the pitch. Our challenge is to beat them. We take pride in performing wherever we go and we want to be the best travelling side in the world. The last person to complain will be this Indian team (sic), so I want to clarify this very clearly,” Shastri reiterated what has been a standard answer from the time he took over as head coach.
He dispelled any doubts about complaints regarding the pitch or the outfield, which is rugged and bears only patches of grass.
“There was good grass on that (pitch). The groundsmen asked if we wanted the grass to be taken off. I said ‘absolutely not’. (It is) your prerogative. You give (the wicket), we play, so when you come to my country you can never ask (about pitches).”
He said that searing heat was a factor as far as ‘cricketing reasons’ are concerned, and the team wanted better preparation ahead of the first Test starting in Birmingham on August 1. “The game was reduced from four days to three because of the logistics and the weather prevailing. We had an opportunity to practice three days in Birmingham, which is the Test venue.
If we had played four days here we would have lost that one day there because of travel. As simple as that because the prerogative whether to play a two-day, threeday or four-day game lies entirely with the travelling team,” Shastri explained.
Shastri said the decision to shorten the game was made during practice on Tuesday.
“It was decided yesterday (Tuesday, during practice). We had a chat (with Essex authorities) and once they explained how they had sold tickets and everything.
“We were happy to play even a two-day game and use that one extra day for practice here. But they said tickets and all that, so we said okay, ‘we will play a three-day game’.”
The idea was to have a session at Edgbaston on Sunday.
“Travel on Saturday, to be able to practice on Sunday. The reason is to get to the Test venue because an extra day there will give us more familiarity with the venue and conditions,” he said.