‘No comfort for Indian players’
Aug. 12: Reports that Team India had sought a “comfort break” between triseries matches here were rubbished by the management here on Thursday. A section of the media had claimed that an embarrassed senior BCCI official called the team manager to cancel a planned three-day trip back home after the team went down by 200 runs to New Zealand here on Tuesday.
As many as nine members (including R. Ashwin and Saurabh Tiwary flying in from Australia) joined the team only a week ago. Team manger Ranji Biswal also called the reports baseless.
“There was no plan at any stage for the players to return home,” said Biswal.
The three-day trip was reportedly designed to give the players a chance to visit home during the six-day gap between the first and third match of the ongoing triseries. Players were also not in the know of the comfort break.
Ahead of the tournament, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni had praised the scheduling of the event that had a reserve day thrown in after every match. India will enjoy another gap of six days after their second match against Sri Lanka. In spite of a scheduled rest day, six players (Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Ashwin, Dinesh Karthik, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja) attended a net session and fielding practice.
The Indians have never been allowed a break when on tour abroad. It was prior to the famous Kolkata Test in 2001 where coach John Wright had allowed the players to return home from Mumbai. Since then, players have occasionally been allowed breaks in the middle of home series.
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