Engineer warns India ‘true test’ will come in England

Botham bats for transfer reform as Coughlin leaves Durham

India great Farokh Engineer has said the “true test” of Virat Kohli’s current side will come when they tour England next year.

Under the captaincy of star batsman Kohli, India have risen to the top of the world Test rankings.

But much of their success has come in home or sub-continent conditions, with their recent 3-0 Test series win in Sri Lanka being a case in point.

Engineer, an outstanding wicketkeeper-batsman for both India and English county Lancashire, said the real worth of Kohli’s men would be judged far away from home.

“The present Indian team are very good indeed,” Engineer told AFP in an interview at Lancashire’s Old Trafford headquarters on Tuesday — shortly before England played West Indies in a One-Day International at the Manchester ground.

“Virat Kohli is an excellent captain, MS Dhoni is looking fitter than ever, Ravichandran Ashwin is one of the great off-spinners, (Ravi) Jadeja, we’ve got a very good team, Murali Vijay, the opening batsman,” Engineer added.

“They have been scoring a lot of runs against Sri Lanka, but the true test will be when they come to England.

“Don’t get carried away by the performance against Sri Lanka, against Australia we are doing pretty well, but that’s in India again.”

The 79-year-old Engineer, a veteran of 46 Tests for India from 1961-75, said next year’s five-match series in England would “sort the men from the boys”.

“India’s real test comes when they go abroad, especially England. England is the true test for any cricketer and Indian cricketers are no exception,” he said.

“You need a real sound technique to play in England where the ball moves about a lot more, both in the air and off the pitch.

“Your technique is really stretched to the limit — it sorts the men out from the boys.”

Only three times in their history have India won Test series in England, most recently in 2007.

Meanwhile, the England and Wales Cricket Board should introduce a transfer system that will reward counties for producing promising cricketers, former national team captain Ian Botham has said.

Durham chairman Botham expressed his frustration after 24-year-old allrounder Paul Coughlin signed a threeyear contract with Nottinghamshire after rejecting a new deal with his side.

Nottinghamshire director of cricket Mick Newell is also an England selector and Botham feels that could have played a part in Coughlin’s decision to swap sides.

“They need to introduce a transfer or similar system of compensation, (and) to remove the potential for conflict of interest by preventing serving directors of cricket acting as selectors,” Botham said in a statement on Durham’s website (www.durhamccc.co.uk).

“The ECB is currently reviewing its partnership agreement with the counties and Durham will be making strong representations to properly reward those that invest in the development of local talent.”

English soccer uses transfer tribunals to decide the values of players under the age of 24 who switch clubs after running down their contracts.