Team India head coach Ravi Shastri is believed to have lost his cool on the eve of today's India vs New Zealand ODI series-opener at Wankhede Stadium
Team India head coach Ravi Shastri is believed to have lost his cool on the eve of today's India vs New Zealand ODI series-opener at Wankhede Stadium. A source revealed that Shastri was unhappy with the decision to schedule a meeting on Saturday afternoon involving the captain and coach of both teams with match referee Chris Broad because it ate into his team's practice time. Another source said Shastri was livid because he wasn't informed about the meeting prior to their team's arrival at the ground.
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Ravi Shastri
It can be recalled that Shastri expressed his disappointment at curator Sudhir Naik after the former India batsman's pitch preparation for the 2015 India vs South Africa series-deciding one-day international led to a flat batting track. South Africa's batting arsenal led by AB de Villiers thrived on the conditions and beat India by 214 runs. It is learnt that Shastri was fuming en route to the ground on Saturday when he was done with the match referee meeting, attended by himself, skippers Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson and NZ coach Mike Hesson. "Ravi expected the meeting to take place either in the match referee's room or in the umpire's room of the Wankhede Stadium.
"He was also fine with the meeting being held at the team hotel," said a source. The match referee briefed the captains and coaches about the new ICC rules that have come into effect from this month. Shastri did not respond to a text message from this writer.