Srinivasan wants fair Indian tracks

N Srinivasan, the BCCI president, has said the Indian board will not prepare rank turners for home Tests. His comments were made last week, before Gautam Gambhir said India should prepare turners to level the playing field.

Speaking on NDTV, Srinivasan also said that he was confident the Indian team would bounce back in next month's ODI tri-series against Australia and Sri Lanka.

"Our aim is to give fair wickets and not one-sided ones," he said on being asked whether Indian pitches should be tailored to back the spinners, traditionally one of the team's strengths. Over the past few years, Indian Test surfaces have generally been slow and low, and produced lots of runs.

India have a strong home record, losing only two Tests over the past five years, but are currently on a seven-Test losing streak overseas. Srinivasan insisted that India would not be content with home wins and wanted more away victories. "The intention, whenever our team goes out, is definitely to win. There is no such intention and neither will the BCCI be satisfied with a win at home," he said. "Not at all. It is our earnest endeavour to win whether at home or outside."

Srinivasan also strongly denied that an overloaded cricket calendar was the reason for India's poor performance. "If you take the last three years, England and Australia have played more number of days of international cricket than India has. I am including that [the IPL]. And also excepting M S Dhoni, nobody else has played all the days of international cricket."