India still behind Australia, South Africa: Azhar

By Rahul Bajaj
for Cricketain.com

Published: November 9, 2009

commentComment     Email This Post Email This Post     Printable version

New Delhi: Former India captain and Member of Parliament, Mohammad Azharuddin, has said that it’s lack of consistency because of which India is behind teams like Australia and South Africa, while adding that the players need to learn to finish off the close games if they want to be the best side in the world.

“They (Indians) lack consistency. They have not performed consistently for the last 6-8 months and lost some close games. They need to win those close games,” said Azharuddin. “Australia are a tough side. India are also no less and they have a lot of talent. But they are still a bit behind top teams like Australia and South Africa.”

Azhar advised the cricketers to maintain a fitness regime and said that at same time they should not hide injuries. “Most of the players these days hide the injury and  play with it. Why are they doing that? They are doing wrong by hiding injuries. My advice to players is to tell their physio or doctor about their problem. It’s important to get it diagonsed properly so as to prolong one’s cricketing career,” said Azharuddin at the concluding session of Sports Medcon here.

“Another problem is when the players go home after their hectic schedules they tend to become casual. They don’t do anything and compromise with their fitness regime. Sometimes it invites injuries. So what happens is that when they return to conditioning camp, they are not fit or are a little obese,” he added.

Azharuddin even went on to cite his own experiences  saying that when he was playing in Reliance World Cup in 1987, he encountered an injury in the third and fourth games and went on to play with it till the semifinals. “When I felt the pain, I consulted it with many doctors. However, they didn’t diagnose me properly and gave me Cortisone injections. I had 25-30 injections over a period of time. I really struggled with the problem for five years. As a result, I became obese and missed many games. That injection would be fine for one day, but the pain would come back the next day,” said Azharuddin, who captained India in 47 Tests and 174 ODIs.

As the country prepares for next year’s Commonwealth Games, Azharuddin feels the country needs sports medicine experts in every sport. “We don’t have good sports facilities and sports medicine experts. We also need good sports physiotherapist and if the country wants to hold successful Commonwealth Games next year, we need trained doctors so that players don’t get injured,” he said.

On WADA’s ‘whereabouts’ clause, Azharuddin said he was against it as he would not want any interference during his personal time. “If they want to conduct tests, they should do it on the ground when all the players are available at one place. To disturb them in their personal time is not a good idea. It’s especially very difficult for the cricketers to inform about their whereabouts during their personal outings,” he said.

Tagged with: , , , ,


WPSN comments




Related News Headlines

Cricketain Latest