Indian team maintains impenetrable layer of reserve

The four office bearers in the Indian team addressed a crowded press conference at the Dhaka Sheraton today which was remarkable if only for how little was revealed. Messrs. Kapil Dev, Sourav Ganguly, Samiran Chakraborty and Rahul Dravid seemed to be treating the occasion as a difficult chore to get over with in a hurry. Of course every one of the pressmen knew what they were getting into after the pleasant response of the team management on arrival at the hotel yesterday but the drama had to be enacted nevertheless.

Kapil tried to look hearty but he couldn't quite carry it off and having already let his pent up feelings slip out in a ferocious and undignified manner, both on television and in the infamous 'ma ka doodh' press conference, he wasn't going to let his guard down again in a hurry. The closest that anyone came to laying a bait was the poser about his statement that the Indian team shouldn't be coming to Dhaka. Kapil was waiting for that one and sidestepped it by noting that was said in his personal capacity. He even had the composure to add with a smile whether he could be permitted to talk on his personal views some other time and the gentleman kindly granted the requested permission.

Many of the queries on team strategy, including whether there was any planning to deal with the altered circumstances of a rain curtailed match, were met with the time tested device that these will be decided on the day of the match. When asked whether he would talk to the press before every game, Kapil said openly that it was not very important but if "something very nice or good or bad or unusual happens, we'll definitely meet the press!"

Kapil also stubbornly refused to answer questions on individual players. "We will go as eleven and not as one", he noted with profundity. He did indicate though that the physical trainer was not happy with the team being cooped up inside the hotel for much longer and they were looking to limber up at the ground before the match starts this afternoon or at the very least in the swimming pool or tennis court of the hotel. Ganguly was asked whether it was a problem to come straight from playing in England to totally different conditions here and he replied, with a touch of hyperbole, that it was 46 degrees here and only 6 degrees in England, but he had been born and brought up in these climes and there was nothing to worry. Chakraborty and Dravid were present in a purely ornamental capacity, not being required to tune their vocal chords at all.

Even a particularly imbecile soothsayer could have predicted some of the cliches trotted out. After all what was the point in asking whether the betting charges had affected the team. Obviously it has but if you're expecting them to say so, it's not being very smart. Ganguly at least had the grace to refuse to answer the question rather than blithely dissemble, like Chakraborty yesterday. No one was under the illusion that they were going to drop any sage comments on that. One certainly does allow for some rope to the players, whose nerve fibres must be taut with pressure, in the face of all the allegations flying through the air. For heaven's sake, the least they could have done was to talk on the cricket, putting extraneous matters behind them and thereby finding an outlet for whatever is bottled up inside. In the face of such brilliant stonewalling however the audience rapidly lost any interest in the proceedings and mercifully the curtain dropped down shortly after.