Urging his team-mates to respect guidelines governing on-field behaviour, Indian one-day skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni added that there was nothing wrong with exchanges between players so long as it remained within accepted norms.
Outlining the need for the players to behave themselves, Dhoni said on Thursday, “The players know the international guidelines set out to be followed. Every player should respect it. It is the responsibility of an individual more than their skipper to know the limitations and to know where they stand. Then again, what's cricket without chirping? You can't just shut up and play your game, so I think it's okay to have some chit-chat.”
Dhoni said he didn't care too much about the events of the past week. “We don't really care about whatever has happened so far. It's a fresh start and we're going to play some good cricket,” the skipper said, a day before Friday's Twenty20 international.
Nearly 90,000 fans are expected to turn up at the MCG. Asked if he expected a hostile crowd, he retorted, “As long as it's not the people on the field who are hostile, it doesn't matter to me! We don't care whether we receive a hostile reception or not.”
India will be without vice-captain Yuvraj Singh for Friday's clash. “He's a master player in the T20 version, he's proved it for us in South Africa and even in the other games with his fielding and other qualities. It's a backward step for us that he will not be playing tomorrow, but at the same time, it gives an opportunity for the next guy to come in and do well,” Dhoni remarked.
India's practice session on Thursday morning was affected by rains, forcing the players to train indoors. “It would have been great if the boys had had some more practice before the one-dayers,” Dhoni said of the newcomers. “They just had a training session yesterday but the wicket wasn't great. Today they had a hit indoors. But we are looking to use this T20 game as a practice game to get our act together.”
Dhoni said Twenty20 wasn't just about luck. “It depends on luck sometimes, whether your decisions are coming right or not, but it's not just being lucky. It's also about how well you play. I have always believed T20 is neither for the batsman nor for the bowler, it's purely for the spectators. But I find that cricketers are taking it a lot more seriously, especially after the World Cup in South Africa.”
On the absence of too many big names in the Indian team, he noted, “One-day cricket or T20 is not about big names but about an individual who has a big game on that particular day.”
