Indian women begin camp on 25th May

After the CricInfo Rani Jhansi Trophy held in Chennai in April, women's cricket in India has gone back to its customary slumber. With the World Cup coming up later this year however, there are still murmurs of promised action. The Indian team begins its first preparatory camp in Solan, Himachal Pradesh on the 25th of May. With temperatures in most parts hovering around the 40 degree centigrade mark, the choice of location is thoroughly justified.

Although Solan is not particularly known for cricketing excellence, the Agricultural and Horticultural College campus will play host to the camp. The preparatory camp is geared towards conditioning the players and bringing them together and will continue till the middle of June. Given the fact that most of these players have never played together it is completely essential that they spend time together, though it might be only for a conditioning camp.

Speaking to the coach of the Indian team, Sudha Shah, during the CricInfo Rani Jhansi Trophy it was obvious that the Indian women's team lagged behind its counterparts in other nations in the fitness department. When asked then about the difference between Indian women's cricketers and others she replied "When compared to the other teams, physical fitness was the main difference. They were a lot fitter than us and much bigger than us really." However she was quick to add that the Indians "scored on them with our spinners. When it comes to batting I'd say that we were better than them technically, but they hit the ball much harder than us."

So, it was obvious that one of the main problems had been identified. Surely then it was only a matter of time before remedial steps were taken. Not quite. There is one rather insurmountable stumbling block. "What we lack is finance and without that it will be very difficult. For example when we went to England last time, the Indian team had just a manager and a coach travelling with the team. The English side had eight people in their supporting staff. They had a batting coach, a bowling coach, a fielding coach, a sports psychologist, a physio, a doctor and a dietician..." adds Sudha Shah.

What is particularly regretful is the fact that the situation hasn't changed much since when the Indian women's team went to England. The president of the Indian Women's Cricket Association is attending a meeting right now, and when she returns to Chennai all the details will be known."

Given the fact that the Indian men's team failed to reach the semi finals of the last World Cup and have had a pretty unsuccessful season otherwise, the Indian women's team could corner some glory by doing well in New Zealand. However, for that to happen, a lot of systematic preparation is necessary. Whether that preparation will happen or not, only time will tell.

The 35 probables who will attend the camp are: Anju Jain, Anjum Chopra, Purnima Rau, Mithali Raj, Umbrani Kalyani, Reshma Gandhi, Renu Margaret, Hemalatha Kala, Rupanjali Shastri, Neetu David, Umesh Kumari, Arti Vaidya, GS Laxmi, Sunita Kanojia, Purnima Chowdhury, Deepa Kulkarni, Smitha Harikrishna, Amrita Shinde, Vaishali Lange, Neelima Bagmare, Sangeeta Kamath, Jhulan Goswami, Rumeli Dhar, Kavitha Roy, K Arundhati, R Varsha, Bindeswari Goel, Gulshan Sharma, Jaya Sharma, Rakhi Mehra, Gurdeep Kaur, Vanitha Viola, Swarna Lakshmi, Mamta Krishnan and Seema Pujari.