India not to rely on foreign support for long: Dalmiya

Jagmohan Dalmiya, president of the Indian board, has indicated that there would be a thrust on improving the standards of Indian coaches and physical trainers so as to reduce the reliance on foreigners. "We are not going to continue with foreign support all the time. Very soon, we are going to have a number of our own men having the required expertise and doing the jobs."

Currently, the coach (John Wright), physiotherapist (Andrew Leipus) and trainer (Gregory Allen King) have all been hired from other countries. "Through these foreigners, we're trying to make sure that our support system is in place," said Dalmiya, who is in Kolkata for the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the BCCI which takes place over the weekend. "At the same time, we're making every effort to ensure that there's a culture whereby even the junior teams realise the importance of fitness training. Maybe, in the future, we will no longer need to seek foreign help and offer our help to the other countries instead. In fact, we have now made it mandatory for every affiliate unit of the board to have a qualified fitness trainer."

Dalmiya, who is expected to be re-elected board president at the AGM, stated that the BCCI had undertaken a number of steps to restructure junior cricket and ensure that the benefits of fitness - traditionally ignored in Indian cricket - were understood by players at an early age.

Addressing the issue of India's search for a reliable opening combination, Dalmiya informed that the Indian board has roped in the services of Sunil Gavaskar, one of the all-time great opening batsmen, to try and find a solution to the problem.

According to the Times of India, Dalmiya said that Gavaskar, who is the chairman of the BCCI technical committee, had recently helped Sourav Ganguly with his batting. "Gavaskar's tips to Sourav Ganguly, during the recent Bangalore camp, have been filmed and we are willing to release it at the right forum if anyone would be interested."

Dalmiya also indicated that the issue of graded-payments system for the players would be discussed over the next couple of days, as would the World Cup contracts dispute with the ICC, which still has not been sorted out.