EXPOSED: Reasons for India’s poor show in West Indies

Sports Desk: From being truly world class to rank pedestrians- all in a span of a week or so- Team India is staring down the barrel in the ongoing tri-series in West Indies.

With two losses in as many games, tongues have started to wag about India’s non-performance.

Add to it skipper MS Dhoni’s absence, and things are not exactly rosy for the team. 

Former cricketers and cricket experts in India are not surprised, though. They pin the blame squarely on BCCI for imposing  tri-series on jaded players. 

From the four-Test series against Australia (Feb 22 to March 24), the players went into the two-month long IPL (April 3 to May 26), and within three days headed for the Champions Trophy. From England, the Board flew the players straight to Jamaica for the tri-nation tournament.

The resentment is more because the tournament was not part of India's original schedule, but was adjusted by the Board for the sake of the T20 League.

According to the Future Tours Programme (FTP) stipulated by the International Cricket Council, instead of the one-day series, the West Indies were to host Sri Lanka for two Tests, three ODIs and one T20. 

Apparently, the basis for the change was that the bilateral series clashed with the closing stages of the League, and it would have meant losing the leading Sri Lanka and West Indies players.

However, for India, it has come at the cost of their team's performance.

Sharp and incisive in England, the team has looked a pale shadow of itself in the West Indies. And, their fittest player, MS Dhoni, has become the first casualty.

"Agreed that everyone wants to play against India, but we have to think about fatigue. The players should be given a minimum of three-week break between every tournament. They have not got the chance to celebrate their Champions Trophy win; they have not been honoured. These are small things, but they do affect the performance of the team," former India player and manager Chetan Chauhan said.

"In any major tournament, the involvement, commitment, training, saps your energy, mentally as well physically, and it is showing in the team after they gave their all in the Champions Trophy," he added.

Former Board secretary JY Lele fears the players will burn out before the main draws of the season, against Australia and South Africa.

 "It (schedule) is nonsense," Lele said.

 "Heading to Zimbabwe from there is even more foolish. The team should have had a two month-break to be fresh for Australia's one-day tour. During our time, there was no cricket in July, August and September," he said.