Birmingham: Team India are not willing to train hard every day, so what if they are in the middle of ICC Champions Trophy. After the hectic Indian Premier League (IPL), where most of the players had to travel the length and breadth of India for the matches, the players want to take some rest and have decided to train hard only on Monday before their match against the West Indies at The Oval on Tuesday.
It was disappointing for the Indian media as they hardly got any players to talk to after their team’s victory over South Africa. All that they received was a SMS from team manager Dr Baba, saying the Indians are not coming to the ground for training.
Ever since the Indian team drove down from Cardiff to London, a three-hour journey, most of the players have locked themselves in their hotel room at Royal Garden Hotel on Kensington High Street. It’s not clear whether players are being exposed very little to the media due to the ongoing spot-fixing scandal that has hit Indian cricket.
“It’s siesta time for Team India,” said an Indian journalist, who waited for many hours at the team hotel.
A few reporters even checked with the media manager if the policy of keeping players away from the media has anything to do with the ongoing spot-fixing controversy and he said: “It’s not about any controversy, but it is a policy that we have taken. Only official obligations will be entertained, nothing else. I can’t change the rules, which we have been following for some time.”
All that the journalists got was a tweet from Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni: “Full day off, good to catch up with some sleep. Brilliant sunny day so the plan is to go out somewhere and do a bit of walking.”
Some journalists found out that Dhoni went out to dine at an Indian restaurant while Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja chose fast food outlets. By noon , the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) put out a media release saying that an emergent meeting of the BCCI working committee will be held on Monday at the Taj Palace in New Delhi.
“Any chance of an emergent meeting by the Indian team with the waiting media in England?,” asked a frustrated Indian journalist.
