Former coach John Wright reckons tracks for the India vs NZ series won't be as bad as 2003
Former coach John Wright reckons tracks for the India vs NZ series won't be as bad as 2003
The last time India toured New Zealand, it had a local man as their national coach. For John Wright, it was not an easy time. Fast wickets were prepared for his Sourav Ganguly-led outfit to cause just the result New Zealand cricket bosses wanted to see.
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Wright wasn't impressed and did not hold back from calling it an unfair advantage as his team lost the Test series 0-2 and 2-5 in their one-day campaign. India has not won a Test series in New Zealand since 1967-68.
The former captain is now New Zealand Cricket's High Performance manager.
Excerpts from an interview:
New Zealand are always hard to beat at home. But considering India's form in all varieties of the game, do you think they stand a reasonable chance to have a victorious time for the first time in 41 years?
I think they are very well balanced. They have had successes in hard campaigns in Australia and England. We are anticipating that they will be optimistic of their chances.
We are hoping that we get good weather and the wickets will not be as big a factor as they were last time. I think we will have to play well. It's a great opportunity for us. We have had a lot of changes in our side. Everyone understands here that India will be very formidable.
Do you see the wickets being bowler-friendly just like the last India vs NZ series in NZ?
NZ Cricket and the public want to see good cricket. I haven't seen anything in my last three years here that goes anything near what we saw in 2003. We had good wickets against England and the West Indies this year. There have been big scores and everyone is mindful of that situation.
What would be India's biggest challenge the conditions or the ability of the New Zealanders at home?
Any side that comes to New Zealand has to adapt to the conditions and that is always a challenge. It is the latter part of the summer now. It's getting a little colder not really cold but we have had a great summer and we are hoping from a cricket fan's point of view that the weather is good.
There is always a little movement on New Zealand wickets. For both sides it is going to be very important that they bat well at the start of their innings in all forms of the game. New Zealand are a resourceful combative side and have some new players on the scene. They shaped up pretty well in the one-day series in Australia. That's probably the strength of our game the one-dayers, the 20-20s. That fact that those fixtures are played first up will give a good chance for some of our less experienced players to have a good look at the Indian team.
India in recent years have adapted well to foreign conditions. Does this put them in a sphere of strength when it comes to this series?
Yeah, but also, the balance in the attack is good. The pace department is much more stronger. I see L Balaji is included and I know how exciting he can be when he is bowling well. Zaheer Khan has come on well and then you have Ishant Sharma and probably one or two who we don't know much about.
The New Zealand side will be well planned; well organised but I think the other thing is that the public is looking forward to this tour with anticipation particularly after the interest the IPL has created and some of our players are in it.u00a0 The IPL has added spice to the Indian tour. The games were telecast live over here and the public know a little bit more about Indian cricket and understand the strength and the economic power house and what it means to our game.
We want to ensure the team is well received. We are all making sure that happens and they enjoy playing here. I don't think the wickets will be like the ones on India's last tour here.
Obviously, positive captaincy is going to play a role. How do you analyse Dhoni's leadership skills?
He has a great presence and it seems to have just grown. He obviously has tremendous leadership capabilities.
I can remember him from the time he made his debut in the Pakistan series when I was involved. He is a very clever cricketer and has been very impressive.
Have you been given any specific role to perform for the series?
No, I am just doing what I used to do with the Indian teamu00a0potting around behind the scenes. But I have certainly briefed our organisation on some of the issues you need to sort out when you have such a big team visiting and that we host the Indian team well. I think it is very important for NZ Cricket that we are very good hosts not only to the team, but to the administration, and to any of the Indian fans who want to come here. I have stressed that point. It's important that we do it very well and that is what we endeavour to do.
Sachin Tendulkar makes his seventh tour to NZ. On his first tour here in 1990, you played a role in denying him the honour of being the youngest Test centurion when you caught him off Danny Morrison in the Napier Test. Do you think about that moment still?
Purely from a personal point of view, I am really looking forward to meeting the boys I worked with. Everything has been written and said about Sachin, but he is truly one of the greats of the game.
His class is still apparent both in Tests and one-dayers.
About that catch (laughs)... well, it was an easy chance and difficult to drop. I don't how many hundreds Sachin went on to make after that. I remember that series very well.
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