BCCI's faith in team and captain justified, says chief

The 4-0 clean sweep against Australia in the just-concluded Test series has justified the BCCI's faith in the team and its leader Mahendra Singh Dhoni, according to Board President N Srinivasan who said a "stern" test awaits the team when they tour South Africa.

Lauding India for its historic series victory over the Australians, Srinivasan said the Board "always had confidence in the team" despite its below-par performances in recent times.

"It is very nice to see India winning. We always had the confidence in the team. We understood that the team was going through a period of transition after some great stalwarts of Indian cricket chose to retire. But I think our faith in the team, the captain and the players have been justified," he told NDTV.

"Cricket is a sport. In sport you cannot be winning all the time. I don't think that the Indian players want to lose. They also want to win, they fought hard. Sometimes they had bad luck, circumstances were against them. But overall, we should be proud of our cricketers," he said.

Srinivasan was particularly happy with the way India bounced back after the 1-2 defeat at the hands of England at home in the previous series, but said stern tests awaits Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men when they tour South Africa later this year.

"Against England I thought may be were little bit unlucky at times, but the team regrouped and performed extremely well against Australia. But we will have tests in South Africa and New Zealand towards the end of this year and early part of next year.

"But all of that is part of building of a team and the character of the players will also come out," he said.