Dalmiya questions performances

The president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Jagmohan Dalmiya, has initiated a number of moves, including writing letters to the team's coach and physio and speaking to skipper Saurav Ganguly, to go to the root of the team's poor performance in recent times.

"Yes, I have faxed letters to coach John Wright and physio Andrew Leipus in South Africa asking them to list reasons behind slide in team's performance after a memorable Test series win against Australia at home," Dalmiya told PTI here today.

He said that he had also spoken to Ganguly over phone in this regard but made it clear that his initiatives should not be misunderstood, "as this is not an attempt to put the blame on somebody but only a sincere effort to find out the reasons behind the slide".

Damliya, however, refused to divulge the details of his discussion with skipper Ganguly but said it mainly focussed on the fact that all the players should give their best on the field.

"It is really disheartening that the Indian team is currently placed at the 8th position among the nine Test playing nations. Time has come when everybody should rise to the occasion to put it at the top," Dalmiya added.

The Board president further said that he was only trying to put an extra effort from the top, which may have been lacking earlier, to put everything in order.

Incidentally, Dalmiya's move to write to the team coach and the physio came along with his unprecedented decision to convene a meeting of the national senior and junior selectors in New Delhi on October 11 to discuss the same issue and also to chalk out strategy for preparing teams for the Under-19 World Cup next year and the senior World Cup in 2003.

While stressing his responsibilities as the Board President, Dalmiya made it very clear that he did not want to interfere in the team selection process but the purpose behind his discussing the matter with everybody was to "co-ordinate the ideas and actions of everybody".

"We have to take along everybody in this mission and see to it that the train, which has been derailed, should be put back on the rails," the board president said.

He further said that his first mission was to see to it that "we should retain the world Under-19 title next year and then put up a strong performance in the 2003 senior World Cup".

Dalmiya sounded like a man in hurry to go to the root of the 'ills' of Indian cricket as his initiatives came within a week of assuming the charge of the president of the BCCI after its AGM in Chennai on September 29.

In fact, Dalmiya had returned to power ousting A C Muthiah in a closely contested election on the slogan that the Indian cricket was going through a crisis and that he had been urged by a section of players and administrators to fight election to 'rectify' it.

Dalmiya had not been involved in the Board affairs since 1997 when he had resigned as its secretary after his election as the president of the International Cricket Council.

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