Bangalore: Ravi Shastri, out of the media limelight since he took on the role of Team Director, answered a lot of questions when he was confronted by a posse of cricket writers at the Press Club here on Monday.
The new director of Team India tackled some uncomfortable questions head-on and strove to come clean on queries about his alleged conformity with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and proximity with N Srinivasan.
“I am not bothered who is the BCCI president. I have taken up the assignment not because of Srinivasan but because of the BCCI. It is a payback time for all the opportunities the BCCI has given to me,” he said.
He said that he has full faith in the current Indian team “The only reason I accepted the job was because I believed in this team. That’s what exactly I told the boys. Good team can’t be a bad team or a brilliant team in two weeks.” He said that the reason of the English Tour debacle is the lack of bowlers who can take 20 wickets.
He felt that the team is better off playing a three test series rather than five tests. “I believe in three Tests. Two Tests are too little and five Tests are too much. India perhaps would have done better if it was a three-Test series against England.”
“You tell me one team, other than South Africa, that has a good record overseas in the recent times. I am not protecting the Indian team. I believe in this team. We need to invest in future and look for bowlers who can pick 20 wickets. South Africa have an attack that can take 20 wickets in all conditions. England had Anderson (James) and Broad (Stuart) who have 600 Test wickets between themselves. Anderson would have tested any side and Broad made a massive difference against India,” Shastri pointed out.
Shastri said there is no alternative to MS Dhoni and if the skipper failed in Test matches it was because of lack of a quality bowler in the side. “Who will you replace him with,” he asked
But he also criticized their performances “If you play spineless cricket, the criticism is warranted. It’s a great game. Accept failure, get out there, work backside off and perform. To be able to come out from dumps, it’s the ultimate feeling. To become a good team, you have to go right down, so that you can keep up.”
Shastri will be out of broadcasting for six months and he had this to say about his enforced absence, “Media can wait for six months. There is something more important on the plate. I’ll be doing it for another 20 years.”
