Pathetic Indian performance due to lack of planning: Srikkanth

Former captain Krishnamachari Srikkanth said that he feels the string of poor performances by the Indian team is because of a lack of foresight, planning and also failure in training youngsters.

Srikkanth, who is currently touring the United States to popularise cricket among Non-Resident Indians and to promote 'Champ Cricket', a channel of the India-based web-portal 'NumTV', on Monday said that Indian players were being sent from one series to another without any analysis of what had gone wrong or without taking corrective steps.

"Once a new series starts, the old one is forgotten and it becomes business as usual", he said.

"The game has become a big money earner for the Cricket Board, players, media and organisers. Even average Test players make up to Rs two crore a year. In the process, the quality has suffered," Srikkanth added.

Srikkanth, who along with Sunil Gavaskar formed what was probably India's best opening pair, said: "Thorough planning is the need of the hour where promising youngsters are encouraged. The Board needs to plan for two or three years, set goals and work to achieve them."

"When a player does well, he is put on a pedestal and then with one bad performance he is out of favour. Whereas the need is for consistency and encouragement to players with potential rather than passing judgment on them after one game," Srikkanth said.