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Consistency is the key, says Sachin

Badly battered in recent cricketing outings, Sachin Tendulkar's new-look Indian side has, it appears, latched on to a new mantra to turn things round - to wit, fitness, fielding, and consistency.

The team leaves late night on September 9 (Tuesday) for Toronto, where it will play five ODIs against Pakistan for the Sahara Cup.

With mainline bowlers Srinath and Prasad out of the side through injuries and leg-spinner Anil Kumble "rested" for this tour, Sachin finds himself at the helm of an inexperienced bowling attack. However, it is consistency, not experience, that will provide the key to this upcoming contest - or so Sachin believes.

"It's going to be a tough tour, but the side that plays more consistently will be the side that wins. Playing Pakistan involves more than cricketing abilities," the Indian skipper pointed out. "It has always been a battle of nerves, a high pressure game. In the present team, only Azhar and I have played them in this kind of situation, the others will need to come to terms with what India-Pakistan games are all about."

While Sachin indicated that the team had sat down to an intensive analysis of the recent debacle in Sri Lanka, he declined to go into details. "For now, the focus is on fitness, on fielding," he said. "After all those close finishes, fitness appears to be the key... it makes the difference between a few runs saved, or given away, in the field; a few sharp singles taken, or missed... that is what we are focussing on right now."

Interestingly, Tej Kishan Kaul, the fitness trainer attached to the Sports Authority of India who was used during the coaching camp in Bangalore before the Asia Cup, is back again with the team in Delhi. And this time round, he says, he has added meditation to the daily regimen, in a bid to teach the players to better cope with stress.

Meanwhile, BCCI president Raj Singh Dungarpur, in Delhi during the course of the conditioning camp for the Indian team, averred that the setting up of a national cricket academy, and the laying of new pitches, remains the board's topmost priority.

"Rs 130 million has been earmarked for the cricke3t academy, and Rs 15 million for the redoing of the pitches," Dungarpur told the media in Delhi. However, he added, the work on the pitches would begin only next season as there seemed little point tearing up wickets now, with the domestic schedule about to get underway.

Asked about whether the present system of team selection would be changed, Dungarpur said that to his mind, zonal selection was an offshoot of the fact that domestic cricket was also based on the zonal system. "However, if there is a consensus, then sure, we can look at changing the format," he said. Defending the selection committee that, under Ramakant Desai, completed its tenure last month, Dungarpur said, "There's been a lot of noise made, but has a single player who deserves to be in the side, and whose performance could have changed the course of a series, been left out?"

"Routine," is how Dungarpur described the BCCI initiative to send an 'observer' along with the Indian side to tour Toronto. Does it have any relation to ongoing allegations of match-fixing and betting? "No," the BCCI president averred - without, however, elaborating on what precisely had prompted the BCCI to go in for an 'observer'.