Aussie media fears India will ensure lifeless wickets to maintain No 1 ranking
Aussie media fears India will ensure lifeless wickets to maintain No 1 ranking
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Self-effacing to a fault, Dhoni is a man of few words. A soft spoken gentleman to the core, he has an admirable respect for his elders and speaks only when spoken to. He would, any day, rather have his deeds do the talking.
When required to speak, the man who has led his team to a Twenty20 World Cup victory and the pinnacle of ICC Test rankings, chooses his words with the earthy wisdom that one would expect from a salt of the earth son of a humble family in backward-of-beyond Ranchi in Jharkand.
Speaking to the media soon after India had sent Sri Lanka to the cleaners in Mumbai on Monday, MS or Mahi (to his friends) expressed concern over the Test team's schedule which provides for only a two-match series against lowly Bangladesh until next October when India will host New Zealand for a three-match series.
According to Dhoni, playing fewer Test matches next year will make maintaining the team's new status as the world's top Test team that much more difficult.
"It is a bit of a concern as we play only two Test matches in the next six months. It will be tough for us to maintain this position," said the street-smartu00a0 Dhoni, who makes no secret of his desire to graduate from college, time permitting.
Wise beyond his 27 years, Dhoni added in typical understated manner: "I can't do anything about the schedule.
It is good to play Test cricket. But we are here to play whatever format of cricket we are asked to play.
No time
"We hardly get time for ourselves so there is no time to complain. We would rather celebrate the moment than think about what we should be doing next."
Meanwhile, the Australian media has slammed the Indian cricket board (the BCCI) for neglecting Test cricket in its "thirst" for revenues from ODIs and Twenty20 matches.
Describing the situation as "outrageous", the Sydney Morning Herald laments the fact that Indian cricket fans will now have to wait until November 2011 to "see their team in whites on home soil".
The newspaper's correspondent Jamie Pandaram writes: "They won't admit it, but the fixtures are determined purely by television revenue.
"Indian broadcast moguls are not interested in Tests because they rate poorly u2013 as indicated by a recent survey u2013 while ODIs and Twenty20s push their numbers through the roof."
Robert Craddock of The Daily Telegraph, while noting India's crowning as the No 1 Test nation in the world, says the" good news is that Test cricket will never die while India rules the world."
The bad news, he says, is that "India will protect what they have got so dearly that losing will become a crime.
"It already is. The shamefully flat wickets we have seen in this (India u2013 Sri Lanka) series which has produced scores in the 600s and 700s will become frequent.
"If India can hold on to their ranking with a drawn series then expect more of the drudgery we have had in the series against Sri Lanka."
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