India's concerns over the fitness of their strike bowler, Zaheer Khan,
suffered yet another jolt after skipper MS Dhoni declared that he wont be playing
in either of the warm-up games. Additionally, opener Virender Sehwag too,
looks all set to miss out on the opening warm-up on the 1st of June against New
Zealand. Both, Sehwag and Zaheer had picked up injuries in the recently concluded
IPL and whilst the left armer's injury was slightly more serious in nature, it's
believed that Sehwag's taking rest more as a way of precaution. A senior member
of the team management was quoted as saying that keeping every member of the squad
fit and maintaining their fitness throughout the mega-event would be one of their
challenges.
While theres been a lot of talk about the 'fatigue factor' affecting the chances
of India in the World Cup, Dhoni brushed off all such concerns by re-iterating
that his team is used to the hectic travelling in the international calendar.
Infact, the skipper pointed out that as one of the most experienced T20 sides
around, India might benefit from the experience of having featured in so many
crunch situations in the past including those in the IPL. He went on to say
that since his side has been virtually unchanged over the past two years, it
helps them to gel as a unit and that almost every team member contributes to
the think-tank by coming up with different ideas from time to time.
Meanwhile, CEO of the ICC, Haroon Lorgat made an honest confession by
saying that players could be tempted to shorten their international cricket
careers to participate in the various cash-rich T20 leagues. The cricketing
circle could be packed with as many as five such domestic leagues with franchises
from England, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand already
chalking out plans to come out with their own version of the IPL. Additionally,
there's the Champions T20 League that will happen annually and then there are
talks of having two IPLs a year. Earlier during the IPL in South Africa, West
Indian skipper Chris Gayle had made startling revelations on how he'd happily
give up on Tests to participate in more number of T20s and Lorgat has conceded
that a separate window for the IPL would be looked into for the next FTP [Future
Tours Programme]; the current FTP model expires in 2012.
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