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India desperately needs a win: Madan Lal

The Indian cricket team badly needs to win a few matches to put behind the recent string of defeats, and to win, fielding would be very important, says coach Madan Lal.

Losses in succession affect the players's morale, making it more difficult to come out of the morass of defeat, he said.

''We desperately need to win a few matches to get the players in the right frame of mind,'' said Madan Lal at the ongoing five-day conditioning camp at the Palam air force ground in New Delhi, in preparation for the Sahara Cup against Pakistan to be played in Canada from September 13.

Immediately after the five-match Sahara Cup, the Indians will play a three-match one-day series in Pakistan.

Expressing disappointment that the team had lost quite a few matches by narrow margins during the recent tour of Sri Lanka, the coach said, ''If we had won those matches, the overall outcome would have been definitely different.''

The team, sans skipper Sachin Tendulkar and some players, including Mohammad Azharuddin, underwent a five-hour physical conditioning and net session on the first day under trainer Tej Kaul who was enlisted for the Bangalore camp prior to the Lankan tour.

Tendulkar and Azharuddin, who on Thursday deposed before the Justice Y V Chandrachud committee, are expected to join the team on Sunday. A surprise absentee was Punjab's medium pacer Harvinder Singh, who finds his place for the first time in the Indian team, replacing an injured Venkatesh Prasad. Bengal left-handed batsman Saurav Ganguly was also not present.

Madan Lal said fitness was a real problem, but the players are being made to undergo a strict physical regimen by Tej Kaul, who said he would try different methods of training every day.

''Fitness includes a whole gamut of bodily and mental exercises and my objective is to sustain that level during this transition period between the end of one tour and the beginning of another,'' he said.

The exercises on Friday were aimed at developing speed and reflexes during fielding, for which Kaul used tennis balls and a racquet. ''On subsequent days, I will concentrate on endurance, strength and other aspects,'' he said.

Kaul, a senior cricket coach of the Sports Authority of India, is also making the players meditate for a while during which he told them, ''Activate your mind.'' Madan Lal, however, evaded a question on whether the team needed psychoanalysis.

Asked about the recent disastrous tour, he said, ''Sri Lanka is a very good side... We missed Javagal Srinath a lot during the tours to West Indies and Lanka and I hope he comes back to the side in the same shape,'' he said. Something also had to be done about the many run-outs that tilted a few matches, he said.

Asked if it was advisable to rest mainline bowlers often to avoid overstraining them, especially in view of the injuries to Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad, Madan Lal said, ''It is a good idea and it will also help try out new talent.''