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Itinerary worries Azhar, Gaikwad

The good news is, skipper Mohammad Azharuddin and coach Anshuman Gaikwad have begun thinking, and worrying, about World Cup 1999.

The bad news is, no one else, especially within the cricketing establishment, seems to share that worry.

"Why do you ask me to talk about it, it is after all just a routine meeting, a friendly chat and nothing serious," was how Raj Singh Dungarpur, president of the BCCI, characterised the discussions he is scheduled to have, today, with the captain and coach of the Indian cricket team.

But is it as 'routine' as India's cricket boss makes it out to be? Or is it indicative of a genuine worry, in the minds of the captain and the coach, that the way India's cricketing schedule is set up, there is an inbuilt guarantee that the team will be carrying injuries, and burnt-out players, into the premier world competition next year?

The BCCI officialdom is, from all indications, under the impression that by having a World Cup camp -- the first, they say, of several -- scheduled to be in Chennai between August 21 and September 5, it has done its bit and can now sit back and expect results.

The coach and captain, meanwhile, are worried that, despite recent triumphs in the Wills Cup in Dhaka, the Coca Cola cups in Sharjah and Calcutta and the Singer-Akai Nidahas Trophy in Colombo, indications are that there will be a drop in the side's performance leading up to the World Cup.

Ahead of the side, between now and then, is a packed schedule that includes the Sahara Cup and the Commonwealth Games, a series in Zimbabwe, the ICC mini-World Cup in Dhaka, the Champions Cup in Sharjah and a tour to New Zealand, followed by a home and away series against Sri Lanka in February-March 1999, to compensate for the probable cancellation of the scheduled tour of India by Pakistan, followed by another one day tournament in Sharjah, in April, pitting the Indians against the Pakistanis.

What is bothering the Indian think tank is that the schedule leaves no time for rest, recuperation and recovery from injuries and physical stress, let alone for the promised series of conditioning/coaching camps.

And the main grouses on the minds of the captain and coach are the tour of Zimbabwe, and the home and away series against Lanka early next year.

The Zimbabwe tour was foisted on the team in predictable fashion. When ICC president Jagmohan Dalmiya decided on a mini World Cup to "develop the game in Bangladesh", it meant that several countries including England and Australia had to adjust their itineraries to accomodate the knock-out tournament featuring the nine Test-playing nations.

More importantly, it meant that the West Indies could not honour the previous commitment to undertake a short tour of Zimbabwe. No problem, Dalmiya assures the Zimbabwe board -- if the West Indies can't make it, we'll send our boys there, so you don't lose out financially.

That the team will end up travelling and playing when they should be resting, attending to tired muscles and fine-tuning their act for the World Cup is, of course, none of anyone's concern.

Then there is the Lanka series, home and away, Tests and ODIs, details of which are being negotiated. Sri Lanka, hell bent on retaining the World Cup, have already adjusted their schedule in order to ensure that they land in London one full month before the World Cup, for a series of acclimatisation games.

India, however, let itself in for yet another ODI series against Pakistan, this time in Sharjah, when the CBFS extended an invitation to stage an annual encounter. The CBFS earns, the BCCI earns -- and the players find their preparation time further cut short.

"We need a month in England to get used to the conditions, to adjust to the cold, to learn to play at our best on those surfaces and in that weather," a source within the team says. "But it doesn't look like we will get it."

So, the meeting -- 'just routine', in Dungarpur's words -- at the Cricket Club of India, in Mumbai, today. According to inside sources, the team management of Azhar and Gaikwad are liable to ask that the series against Lanka either be truncated or abandoned altogether, and replaced with a long conditioning camp in late February-early march, ahead of the World Cup.

As it stands, the team expects to land in England in end-April, and will play its first outing in World Cup 1999 on May 15.