da mrbet： As the rest of the team celebrated India’s first Test win outside thesub-continent in 15 years, coach John Wright had an extra reason towear a satisfied look
12-Jun-2001As the rest of the team celebrated India’s first Test win outside thesub-continent in 15 years, coach John Wright had an extra reason towear a satisfied look.Wright, who has always stressed on improving the fielding and thefitness of the players, was very content with the team’s performancein the first Test. "Only when you are fielding, you can see if thereis team spirit in a unit,” Wright said.The Indians had a lot to cheer about in terms of their fieldingperformance in the Bulawayo Test. They took some outstanding catchesand were generally very agile in the field.Sadagopan Ramesh had a hand in two such dismissals, the criticalwickets of Guy Whittall and Andy Flower. Both were brilliant catches.Here was a man who is fighting for his Test place and only a couple ofhours before was down on the bench in the dressing room gettingtreatment for diarrhea. He didn’t brood or clutch his stomach in pain.He wanted to contribute badly and did so in a rousing fashion.Similar was the case with Rahul Dravid. The vice-captain went into thematch with his dislocated finger not quite fully mended. He made 44attractive runs and effected the run-out of Grant Flower besidestaking a catch.The run-out made a lot of difference to the target set for theIndians. It was a smart pick up and direct throw at the striker’s endwhich brought Grant Flower’s innings of 71 to a frustrating end.One must also not forget Shiv Sunder Das whose diving catch at forwardshort leg off Brian Murphy was as good as any seen in this match.Wright said the hard work put in by the team was paying off. “Thishasn’t happened overnight. It is a gradual process and I think it allstarted in the short camp before the series against Australia,” hesaid.Wright remembers two instances to back his impression. “The catch offJason Gillespie in the Chennai Test (against Australia) and the one byZaheer Khan in the same match had a vital bearing on the match.”A normal practice session of Indians these days involves hundreds ofcatches taken in the outfield and in the slips. It is particularlytiring for the men in the slips as slashing cuts are made in theirdirection and they have to catch scores of them. It is this hard workwhich is being reflected on the field these days.Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar too doesn’t remember when was thelast time the Indians caught as well as they did in the Bulawayo Test.”Some of the catches were outstanding. They were as good as any youwould see on a cricket field,” said Tendulkar.The improvement is noticeable even in those players who have thereputation of being average fielders. The manner in which AshishNehra, for example caught catches at practice, Wright’s forehead wasquite creased. “But he was quite good in the Test match,” Wright said.”He also batted very sensibly in raising 38 runs for the last wicket,trying to give strike to Harbhajan all the time.”This work ethic also extends to running between the wickets. VVSLaxman, despite his pyrotechnics with the bat, is not quite everyone’sidea of a perfect runner between the wickets. In the first gameagainst Zimbabwe A at Mutare, Laxman did not respond to a call for athird run by striker Das in time. Das was then dismissed off the verynext ball.The team management was furious. Laxman was made to run a few laps ofthe ground with bat raised overhead. The penalty is swift and severeat times.Harbhajan Singh, on this tour, has been plagued by a corn in the soleof his left leg. It is very painful and as Harbhajan says, whenever hehas to sprint, it hurts immensely. In Mutare, whenever he wouldcomplete a lap at the ground, he would look at Wright. If he waslooking for any sympathy or break from the coach, it was notforthcoming. He kept doing the laps till “it became so warm I forgotthe pain,” Harbhajan said. “At the end of the day, you realisewhatever he (Wright) is doing is only for the good of all of uscricketers.”Wright says one of the benefits of training hard is you are mentallystrong. “If you are strong there,” Wright said pointing a finger onthe head, “you can handle stress, tiredness and fatigue much better.”