New Zealander John Wright has played 18 matches in four World Cups, from 1979 to 1992; the old fashioned way in flannels, in typical English environment and also when coloured clothing, lights and white balls were introduced in 1992. He was the coach of the Indian team that lost to Australia in the 2003 final at Johannesburg. He is part of the Mumbai Indians set up and scouting for new talent in the on-going Ranji Trophy season. He spoke to The Hindu about what can happen in Australia and New Zealand during the ICC World Cup and particularly about India. He said India has “to work a lot”, “turn it around” and play “tough cricket” if it has any chance of defending the World Cup it won in 2011. Excerpts:
Would you say that the M.S.Dhoni-led Indian team accomplished a lot, peaked to win the title in 2011 and it would be too much to expect a repeat, especially in Australian and New Zealand conditions?
India has played two one-day games against Australia and England in the tri-series in Australia. And I feel they have lot of work to do. They have to start playing tough cricket. You cannot win a big tournament bowling on both sides of the wicket. They have to sort it out quickly. They have to look at the way they are performing; you just cannot go on bowling both sides. You have to bowl one side.
Forties and 50s are not going to help. Rohit Sharma made 138 and no one else scored any runs. They should have easily got them. You have to get 80s and 90s and not 30s and 40s. In a World Cup tournament, when it’s your day, you have got to make it count. India has to start doing all this now. In defence of the World Cup, India has to be up on its fielding and be accurate with the delivery of the ball because this will give the batsmen, plenty of confidence. If the batsmen have to be constantly chasing huge totals, it does not help. India has to sort out things soon.
India batted well in home conditions to win the World Cup, but it obviously cannot rely on this particular department to outplay teams in Australia and New Zealand?
They cannot. The wickets are not as flat in Australia and New Zealand. You can bat other teams out of the game, but that does not happen so easily in that part of the world. You have to look at your fielding and bowling which gives a strong foundation and they have to sort that out. They look like having the boys who can bowl, but it’s a question of where they put the ball.
Do you think Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane have spent lot of energy during the Test series and that could affect them in the World Cup?
No. They are young men. It’s a great opportunity. It’s a World Cup. They are not 52. They had a good spell in the Test series. There’s always pressure. Being with the Indian team there is always a tournament around the corner and they are always playing under pressure. They have to look at it positively by saying here’s an opportunity to defend the World Cup and win it in a row. If you are fatigued at the start, that’s not going to help you at all. Everyone plays lot of cricket now a days. It’s not easy, but it’s a matter of getting used to that pressure and make it part of your life as you put on the Indian blue.
I will only look at the players I worked with…Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath. They were big players; they learned to handle pressure. Then the youngsters came through like Virender Sehwag. Glenn Turner once said to me that “getting picked is easy, it’s what you do when you get there that counts.’’ That’s the way one should look at things; there’s a great opportunity being granted by the selectors. You have to flip the coin and say “this is my big chance’’ and when I look at some of the players in the squad now they are capable of having a tremendous World Cup. But they have to fight hard.
Would you say the Asian teams are not high in anybody’s estimation?
No. You cannot rule out any side, in particular Pakistan. With Sri Lanka, it’s a question of how their experienced players like Mahela (Jayawardene) and Sangakkara (Kumar) play and also Malinga. If these three play well, Sri Lanka will have a good tournament. They did not do too well against New Zealand. India has to step up. Pakistan can get on a roll very quickly.
If you look at the form book, India has got to turn it around. I think we are in early days and the World Cup has not started yet.
What would Australia and New Zealand demand from teams to excel in the competition?
It’s basically self-belief. I think that’s the biggest thing. You cannot think too much about form and getting jaded. The self-belief should be that we have the team to win the World Cup. You have to turn up as a group in that tournament with a conviction that you are capable of winning the Cup.
Would you hazard to pick the top three?
Australia and South Africa have players of quality on their team sheet. They look pretty strong. New Zealand is capable because they can beat any of those two teams Australia and South Africa and have done so recently. They beat South Africa in South Africa recently. And New Zealand love playing Australia. So New Zealand has this advantage. These three are my top three for sure; but I don’t want to put pressure on them.
These teams have done incredibly well and then there could be a big surprise; and that would revolve around a team that scraps hard, gets the best out of itself and fights hard. Anyone can do that. At the end of the day, you have one or two players; like in England you look around and see Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad. The West Indies have Chris Gayle. Pakistan have some nice balance because they have batsmen who can bowl. If India were to play well, they can do it; they have to play some really tough cricket. They have to create that belief and this particularly has to start with the discipline they have to show with their bowling.
I watched them the other day and they could have beaten Australia easily (at Melbourne). Australia seemed to come under pressure at the end of the game; another 20 runs we could have been talking about a completely different result. They were outclassed at Brisbane (by England), they could not cope with bounce. So India would have learned two things from those two games and that Australian game, if they had bowled a little better in patches and strung a few partnerships, they would have probably won the game. India has some work to do. There should not be any excuses.
What are the big picture changes from the 1992 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand to now?
Obviously it’s a bigger tournament now; it’s seen as big then, but it’s much more bigger now because of the larger presence of media, the IPL has taken place. I was watching the highlights the other day of some of the old tournaments and there was a lot more expressions from the players. There’s hype around now around World tournaments and more money too.
Australia and New Zealand set a new trend with coloured clothing, matches under lights, white balls and black sightscreens; so that novelty is discounted out this time; it’s likely to be more on seam or spin?
I think certain teams will fancy their chances with seam bowling. With conditions in Australia and New Zealand, one would want to be strong with the new ball. You need to be because there is not going to be any purchase or even turn for the spinners. You have to be a really good spinner to make the ball turn. I think the wickets are better for one-day matches. There would always be a need for a spinner. New Zealand may offer damper conditions.
There is always the ICC condition that the pitch should not allow too much lateral movement?
The pitches looked flat in the India-Australia series. In New Zealand the pitch preparation is a lot more scientific and so the one-day wickets will be a lot better. The same happened in South Africa (2003 World Cup), the Centurion wicket used to be so fast and quick; it turned into a new wicket. So you keep an eye on these things. There is no doubt in my mind that Australia and New Zealand won’t mind the home conditions, if the odd pitch seamed around. The New Zealand wickets are better batting wickets now; a team can get 300 and more. There could be a combination of wickets though that would demand much from the skilful modern day player.
So what can the bowlers of all variety expect from the wickets in Australia and New Zealand. Especially if the batsmen innovate; switch hit, reverse hit and all that, scoops and also de Villiers shots?
At the moment it looks as though the bat is dominating the ball. If anyone saw the match at Brisbane, that English team looked impressive on that wicket against India. They bowled well. So with two new balls it would be a challenge to take an Australian attack with Mitchell Johnson and South Africa with Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel. They will get help from certain wickets and when you get those conditions that are in your favour you have to make it count. Generally batting first and putting runs on the board should be the aim, but if you get a bowler (seamer)-friendly wicket, you have to make a decision at the toss that’s correct. Brisbane would give that option with extra bounce. Look at India, they have been in Australia for two months and they have not adjusted. It would be interesting to see if that (seam-friendly conditions) would have a bearing on a team’s performance and progress at any stage.
What’s your perspective now?
Whichever way you look at it now, it’s very open. Sri Lanka will be heavily depending on Lasith Malinga, but they don’t know whether he will be around. England’s bowling looks decent, but the question is how will its batting go; Pakistan is an unknown quantity, West Indies can be dangerous any day; it depends on how well they gel as a team and New Zealand is looking promising; they cannot get ahead of themselves, but they are looking okay. Australia and South Africa, they look like they normally look; just pretty formidable. But Australia have also been vulnerable than they have looked in the past.
When you mention South Africa and big tournaments, the one word that crops up is “choke”?
They were favourites in the last World Cup and we beat them comfortably in the quarterfinals. They had no excuses, in their case it was a pretty good toss to win. It’s about grabbing your opportunities; first it’s about getting into the last group and grabbing the chances.
