Indian players enjoying the short break before the World Cup

The Indian Cricketers, who are there in Australia, have been given a short break by the board. They have been freed to explore Down Under for a few days before they get all their attention back to Cricket again and try and win the biggest prize in the game i.e. the World Cup.

The Indians have been in Australia for about 10 weeks. They had landed there back in November. Since then, they have played a couple of warm up first class matches, a full test series of 4 games and then, almost the same team played the Carlton Mid Triangular ODI series as well. So, they must be mentally drained and you don’t want to be playing a World Cup in a drained mental condition.

This break period has been nicely timed by the BCCI. There are seven days to go for India’s first practice game against Australia. A couple of training sessions before that would be fine. So, if the players get back to the team camp on Friday i.e. 6^th February, they would be ready for that game. The sources say some of the Indian players actually wanted to meet their families and they had even requested the board to give them the permission to take the flight back home. But, Australia is not a nearby country. Returning from there and then going again within 3-4 days, it would take its toll. So, the board did not allow anyone to return, but, is planning to arrange for the families of some players to travel to Australia to meet them.

India’s second practice game before the World Cup is against the Associate team Afghanistan on 10^th. And, then, the big game, the much awaited India Vs Pakistan fixture, would come along on 15^th.