I want all the players to be fit: Wright

By G. Viswanath

CHENNAI, SEPT. 21. India's coach John Wright is not amused, in the least, by the injury related episodes in the last week. He took part in the selection of the Indian team for the first part of the tour to South Africa (for the tri-series) and returned home to spend time with his family in Christchurch and Wellington. He will be flying to Johannesburg on Saturday morning to make arrangements for the team's preparatory camp there. In the intervening time, he has been in touch with some players and kept himself abreast of the spectacle with regard to left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra, who was ruled unfit by the BCCI's medical advisor, Dr. Anant Joshi early this week, but has been permitted to prove his fitness in Mumbai on Saturday and Sunday.

Talking to The Hindu from his Christchurch residence on Friday morning, Wright said: ``I will respect the decision jointly taken by Dr. Joshi and physio Andrew Leipus. I am not competent to comment on the fitness aspect. I am sure Dr. Joshi and Leipus will consult the player (Nehra) and take a proper decision. I would like to say that I don't want a single player to land at Johannesburg (on September 24) less than hundred percent fit. I have talked about these at length to Sourav (Ganguly).''

Wright has planned a certain way of training and practice for the Indians. ``Leipus has already got the groundwork going. It's going to be five days of rigorous work before they play their first match. This is going to be a tough tour and I want all of them to be fully fit. On the first day I have planned a team meeting wherein we will talk in general about the tour. Then it will be down to serious and hard business.''

Recalling what transpired at the three hour selection committee meeting in Mumbai, Wright said: ``We all knew that some players were not in good physical condition when we picked the team. But all of us believed that we have to take firm and hard decisions if a player was injured and recovering. Laxman took a sensible decision.

He told me from Sydney that he doesn't want to bat for India until he is fully fit. Laxman is not a fast runner between wickets. I think he took the right decision. It's unfortunate Badani (Hemang) and Khan are out too. India has got lot of tours coming up and the players have to keep themselves fit.''

Evidently, he was delighted with the progress made by Anil Kumble. ``He is a coach's dream. I and Leipus spent two days with him in Bangalore after we returned from Sri Lanka. Well, he is a great example for the cricketing fraternity. The bottom line is, he is a pro. He is the sort of a cricketer who makes a coach all obsolete.''

Given the option and final say, Wright, would be inclined to pick Ajit Agarkar, should Nehra be declared unfit by Dr. Joshi and Leipus in Mumbai on Sunday. He and Ganguly in the recent past have urged the five selectors to retain him for both versions of the game. They feel that Agarkar is young, his strike rate is excellent in limited over internationals and that at 23, he has the potential and future. But two more seamers -- Orissa's Debasish Mohanty, who has often been the recipient of raw deal from the selectors, and Baroda rookie, Rakesh Patel -- are in the fray.``Well, whoever makes it, has to be a very fit man. The players have been given an opportunity to prove they are in good shape,'' said Wright.

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