Cricket: Test of mental toughness

By RICHARD BOOCK

John Wright believes the fate of India's tour Downunder this summer will depend largely on the visitors' degree of mental toughness.

The former New Zealand captain toured Australia three times in his test career and six times as a one-day player, and understands better than most the psychological battles facing teams in the great southern theatres.

India have been touring Australia since 1947-48 but have yet to win a series, their best efforts coming in the summers of 1980-81 and 1985-86 when the rubbers were shared.

Their past two tours were miserable - cleaned up 4-0 and 3-0 respectively.

Wright's class of 2003 will represent India's eighth assault on the Australian frontier and interest in their likely progress is already high, even though the present TVS Cup Series is acting as a temporary smokescreen.

The series against New Zealand was always going to be the entrée for Indian fans, who have been looking forward to the main course in Australia for months, creating plenty of room for debate, conjecture and speculation.

How would Sachin fare? Would Srinath be recovered from injury in time to tour?

And what of the two left-arm pacemen, Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan? Could they cause problems?

There have been discussions going on all over the place about India's rookie opening batsman Akash Chopra, the prospects for VVS Laxman and the potential of Harbhajan Singh, not to mention the threat posed by the Australian attack.

Whatever the theories, there's little doubt that India have the deepest talent pool in world cricket, and would surely be the best team around if success was to be measured solely in ability.

But it isn't and Wright understands that.

"To be successful in Australia you have to demonstrate a lot of mental strength, both individually and in a team sense," said Wright this week.

"So the first challenge for us is to select the people who are mentally up for it.

"All the talent in the world won't make up for a lack of mental toughness and that's what will be needed if we're to perform well in Australia."

Having crossed swords with some of the most intimidating Australian cricketers of his time, Wright also understands that there's nowhere to hide Downunder, and that the local players will intuitively detect a crack in the mental armour.

Steve Waugh liked to describe the tactics as mental disintegration and is unlikely to unwind the pressure much during the upcoming series, despite the International Cricket Council's tough new stance on sledging and gamesmanship.

"The reason the top two inches are so important over there is that Australians are particularly adept at finding out the players who aren't strong enough mentally," said Wright. "They're very quick at exposing weakness."

Wright, who has coached India for the past three years, surely close to a record given the constant changes usually rung, said his team had the potential to beat anyone in the world, anywhere in the world.

But potential was only half the battle.

"In terms of mental strength, were capable of being at both ends of the spectrum," he said.

"But the good thing is that we've been winning tests away from home quite often now and the players know within themselves that they're capable of competing strongly."

India will play the first and second tests at Brisbane and Adelaide before heading to Melbourne for the Boxing Day test, after which they wind up the series in Sydney.

They then square off against the hosts and Zimbabwe in the VB one-day series, in what should be an interesting backdrop for the New Zealand home series against South Africa.

Wright said despite history not being on India's side and the poor results during the past two tours, the players were genuinely looking forward to the looming contest and were in no way intimidated by the challenge.

"The Indian players enjoy competing against Australia," he said. "Australia are an attacking side, they play an exciting brand of cricket and are looking for a positive outcome at all stages of the game. So many touring teams in India just defend and try to wait us out.

"The players are really looking forward to the contest."