Irate Coach Fletcher Defends Indian Decision To Play Out Draw

Indian coach Duncan Fletcher has never been the best of friends with the media, even when he was with England. So, when the media went after him in the post-match press conference of the third Test match between India and West Indies, for what many believed to be lame tactics from the number one team in the world, Fletcher’s response was anything but reconciliatory.

India had failed to go after the West Indian target of 180 in the 47 overs allocated and played out a draw instead. Under normal circumstances, a 1-0 Test series win – to go with the ODI and T20I series victories – should have enthused the fans.

However, with India’s number one ranking against the seventh-placed West Indies, the fans were in no mood to relent and the social networking sites were full of buzz from incredulous cricket-lovers, who thought that India had lacked the spine associated with the ranking they had.

One said, “Can’t believe woke up to the news that we abandoned the chase with Dhoni, Dravid, Laxman still there.” The matches played in West Indies begin at 7.30 pm for the Indian fans and go on till the early hours of the morning.

Some even compared the Indian attitude of avoid defeat to former number one team in the world, Australia, who always played for the win. Another Facebook message from an ardent cricket fan read, “Australia played to win; India plays not to lose. One has got the positive attitude of champions; the other fears failure”

But Fletcher was having none of it. He blamed the slow nature of the pitch for foregoing the decision to go after the win. He said, “I said before. Run-scoring on that pitch was difficult. Once it got to four or five runs per over we were struggling to score. We were struggling to score three runs per over. The side decided it was difficult to get those runs and thought what's the point in going there and ending up maybe with just one side able to winning it.”

He was repeatedly asked this question, and he continued to fire off the same answer.

The problem wasn’t that of not going after the target, it was more to do with the giving up on the ghost with 15 overs to be bowled and with only three wickets lost. Surely, with the likes of Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh in the dressing room, things could have been different.

But Fletcher sought to concentrate on the positives, citing the absence of the main cricketers, “I think we made a statement. We came here with five top players missing - Sehwag, Gambhir, Tendulkar, Zaheer - we come here with a young side and we have won 1-0, I think that's quite a statement to some degree.”

So, till the next one against England, this debate will continue to rage on. Fletcher and the Indian team, on the other hand, would do well to reassess their decision to stop at the doorsteps of a win and turn their faces away.