Asia Cup 2008

Kirsten chips in with Dhoni & Kumble

Gary Kirsten, India’s coach, has backed Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s views on the Asia Cup’s hectic schedule.

“I think that three games in four days in this heat took a toll on the players,” he said after India’s net session on Tuesday. “It is unfair to expect players to play that amount of cricket in such short space of time in 35 degrees heat.”

Dhoni had earlier blamed India’s listless performance on the field against Bangladesh in the on-going Asia Cup by schedule which has teams playing matches on consecutive days. Rajiv Shukla, the Indian board vice-president, responded by saying if a player wanted rest, he could inform the BCCI which would be happy to send replacements.Then Anil Kumble also came up in support of the ODI captain saying that India’s schedule was indeed jam packed.

India will play Pakistan on Wednesday and Sri Lanka on Thursday and, if they qualify for the final, will play on Sunday as well. The Test players will get a short break before they head to Sri Lanka for a three-match series which begins with a tour game on July 18. The rest of the season is similarily packed.

Tags: anil kumble, Asia Cup 2008, Gary Kirsten, MS Dhoni