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The hush-hush camp
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The camp for the Indian cricket team at the National Cricket Academy has concluded but the players will be back on August 6 to prepare for the tour to Sri Lanka
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PHOTOS: BHAGYA PRAKASH K.
BACK TO BUSINESSThe training at the National Cricket Academy had many draws for the media and the few spectators: poster boy Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the now-fit Sachin Tendulkar among others
Irfan Pathan walked up to the fence adjoining the KSCA (B) Ground and shook it vigorously in mock anger last week. It was the lone moment of cheer for the diehard fans clinging on to that fence and perched on nearby trees during the fitness camp for Indian cricketers held over the week. For minutes after Irfan's brief bonding with his fans, trainer Gregory King told the media the team would train at an undisclosed location for three days.
It promptly triggered a chase in the morning mists as television crews tailed the team convoy all the way to the Pegasus Centre in Doddaballapur. The media was virtually left high and dry as the gates of Pegasus was slammed shut and the players got to the grind away from the spotlight.
"It was good for the players to be on their own without being constantly watched or photographed by the media," skipper Rahul Dravid said on returning to Bangalore.
Speculations galore
The secrecy that shrouded the camp triggered speculation that players were busy with activities ranging from rock climbing to rafting, which Dravid promptly denied in his media briefing. The accent on providing a new experience to the players was again reiterated when the team spent a day at the Parachute Regiment Training Centre donning army colours, trying its hand at shooting, rope-sliding, clearing obstacle courses and also testing its psychological mettle through some tests.
In between, the players did their training at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and that was indeed a relief to the fans and the media that was largely kept in the dark.
Gregory King stressed that the players enjoyed their training stints and the team management of Dravid and vice-captain Virender Sehwag seconded it. Dravid also warned about the fallacy of expecting immediate results from a camp spouting different ideas.
"Look, the benefits of this camp might be felt in the long term. But it is tough to quantify. You can go out and get a B.Com. degree but can you tell me exactly how it will help you in your life? You cannot. For instance, I have become a more confident player after playing in different conditions but I cannot say exactly that it helped me score 1,000 runs extra or helped me win one more series. Everything cannot be quantified and in the end it is just a camp; you can complicate it as much as you want but it is just a cricket camp," the skipper said while refusing to be drawn into revealing the camp specifics.
At the end of it all, as the players rushed to board their respective flights, another camp had concluded at the NCA. But thankfully this time around, the "camp-with-a-difference" tagline did not sound like a cliché because it was indeed the truth.
K.C. VIJAYA KUMAR
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