Fletcher vents fury at Indians

13 April 2012

Duncan Fletcher reacted with uncharacteristic anger yesterday when his players were again presented with abysmal practice facilities at the restart of their Indian tour.

The usually restrained England coach could not contain his fury at what he considers a stitch-up by the home authorities as his squad hurriedly prepares for next Saturday's opening one-day international.

Fletcher said: 'I don't feel that's the right way to treat an international side coming out here for a very important series. Having had a sixth one-day international forced upon the players you would expect to have decent practice facilities.'

Any hope that England might have left behind the controversy of last month's Test series appears to have gone already as, yet again, a trip to the sub-continent begins with a rumpus.

Fletcher feels badly let down after the tourists agreed to a major change in their schedule due to the Indian Board's late demand that a sixth match be played in the series.

After a second, unsatisfactory session at the Calcutta Cricket and Football Club, Fletcher added: 'The nets have been dangerous and wet and the bowlers haven't been able to bowl flatout. The batsmen are struggling and are having to play defensively when they should be practising attacking shots.

'The lights are not good enough and there are holes in the net. How can you concentrate when you play a leg-side shot and you are worried that you are going to take out the guy in the one next door to you?'

Prior to Indian Board president Jagmohan Dalmiya's threats to withdraw from one Test this summer if a sixth game was not added, England were due to prepare in Bombay. There they would have trained every day at the international stadium and had two proper warm-up matches prior to an opener on January 22.

Now they have just one practice match and are due to have all but two days' preparation in the modest environs of the cricket and football club. And this to prepare for Saturday under lights at the vast, throbbing amphitheatre that is Eden Gardens.

'We would rather practise there but the excuse we are being given is that we cannot, for security reasons. We have spoken to the head of police and he says that he would rather we were there because security is easier to manage,' fumed Fletcher.

The spat between Jagmohan Dalmiya and the ICC flared up again when the Indian Board president objected to the make-up of a panel formed to review the Mike Denness affair. India had Denness sacked as match referee in South Africa last year and now Dalmiya wants a say on who looks into the episode.

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Fletcher vents fury at Indians

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