da aposte e ganhe： After India let their 2-0 series advantage slip, Rahul Dravid and their coach John Wright addressed the media
da cassino online： Rahul Bhatia17-Apr-2005
Dravid: ‘It’s a team game and a team sport and teams win and teams lose’© Getty Images
Rahul Dravid
On the series
It is disappointing. We had an advantage at 2-0, but they won a couple ofgames and got the momentum going, so credit to them.Whether the toss played a factor
I don’t want to use the toss as an excuse. It was definitely a good tossto win. That’s all I’d like to say. They won two games of the series afterlosing the toss. We couldn’t manage that.About India’s ODI performances
We’ll think about it because we haven’t performed well for 100 overs. Ourone-day performance has not been good. Not only this one but even for thelast few series we haven’t played good one-day cricket and that’ssomething we have to think about. We’ll have to think again about ourstrategies.On the importance of individuals
I’m a firm believer that one or two individuals don’t make a difference. Ithink it’s a team game and a team sport and teams win and teams lose.On India’s lack of quality allrounders
We’ve had players of the quality of Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri, and it’snot easy to find players of that quality. The selectors would love to beable to pick someone of that quality. So perhaps there’s an opportunityfor someone in domestic cricket to look at that spot and say ‘perhaps theIndian team needs someone of that quality’.On whether India should infuse new blood
If there are quality players who can replace the personnel, then fairenough. But it is the responsibility of the new selectors to try to raisethe game. If all of us can look to individually improve our skills andperform better, that adds to the side.What Wright brought to the team
I think professionalism, planning, organisation, discipline, team ethics. I think he helped create a good team culture, and he made the team look beyondthemselves and achieve greater things. We did that in some areas, wefailed in some areas.About the bottle-throwing incident
It was disappointing to see the bottles being thrown. I think there areother ways of expressing your frustrations. While the players might notlive up to your expectations, they are always trying their best.About the last season
It’s been a long one – and we haven’t kicked on; there’s no doubt about it.Our one-day performances this season were very ordinary. Our Testperformances, other than Australia, I thought we did quite well. But theAustralian series was the biggest one for us this season. Australia camehere and beat us. There wasn’t much shame in that because I thought wecompeted hard in the four games and we were beaten by a better side.Hopefully it [the season] is just an abberation and we can move on fromhere next season.John Wright
On the manner in which his tenure ended
It’s a tough way to finish. I think being two-nil up in the series andthen not being able to win it – or even share it – is disappointing.About India’s performance in the last season
We struggled with our batting, coming back after the Asia Cup and we neverreally got batters in form, which had been a strength of the one-day team.We didn’t really get any momentum going in the one-day game. We have tolearn from the last season in our ODI performances. I am very confidentthat we tend to play big tournaments well and this is a bitter pill totake, but it gives the selectors and my successor the chance to reallythink and do some detailed studies on the slump and put that right andbuild in a measured fashion for 2007. I think both these sides will dovery well in 2007 and have an opportunity. I felt the fourth game was acritical one. When you put 316 on the board and don’t convert that into awin. If we had converted that opportunity, it could have been a completelydifferent outcome. I feel the ingredients are there. I feel optimisticabout India being a strong force in 2007.How far have India really travelled?
I think the side is half-way down the road. I think there’s much moreimprovement needed, and there are certain areas that need to be looked at.Test wise, we’re nearly there. Just some changes perhaps to the way weplay ODI and it could sort itself out pretty quickly.What his plans are
I’ll go home and probably take time to put things in perspective. It’sbeen an interesting ride. Life has never been dull in this position. It issomething I’ll consider: where to go from here. I think sometimes a periodof reflection is good. There will be other challenges for me, I’m sure ofthat. I said this before. I’ve always felt that the passion of the Indianfans is very special and those are the people for who cricket plays a bigpart. I’ve always felt they deserve a good team. They understand thatwinning and losing can be part of the game but they deserve a good team tomake them proud. During the tough times, that sort of kept me going.Should the coach also be able to select, given he knows the players betterthan anyone else?
There are arguments for it, yes. And there are other systems, such asAustralia, where Buchanan started off having that role and now does not.So there is a balance there. I must admit, sometimes I envy the soccermanager’s role; he seems to be in that situation.On work ethics and improvement
I’ve always believed that if you want to be successful in any walk oflife, there’s a price to pay – and that’s hard work. So I think the workethic is very important. Certainly the fitness, fielding and runningbetween the wickets were issues. The understanding of the team is the mostimportant thing and that’s why no one’s bigger than the team. I must sayI’ve been very lucky to have the backing of an excellent support staff. Ialso have a lot of support from the senior players. Sometimes they haven’tagreed with me but I’ve had excellent support. Improvement is ongoing.It’s a never-ending process.Whether he will watch India in the coming years
Like a hawk.About his connection with India
My son and daughter support India. Of course I will follow India. They saythat India touches you and that is correct in my case as well.
