Fletcher reflects on England's tour 28k

India and England played out a three Test match series, and the home side emerged winners 1-0 thanks to their victory in the First Test at Mohali. Purely on cricket merits, England had the better of the Second and Third Test matches. Much credit should go to the English think-tank who came out with a plan, and to the players, who executed the plan to perfection in the middle. Their tactics might not please the purists but the Indian skipper and coach both admitted they were impressed in the post-match press conference.

England has a professional coach in Duncan Fletcher - the former Zimbabwe skipper is one amongst the very best. In a country where cricket is far behind professional soccer in the public eye, Fletcher and Hussain have brought the focus back on the game itself.

Fletcher knows his job and sticks to it, allowing his players to believe in the plan that he helps them lay out. Talking to CricInfo about the tactics employed by his team, Fletcher said, "At the end of the day you must have a look. They are 100 runs behind us. It was obviously a clear plan, we wouldn't have done that otherwise. We asked ourselves what is the best method to knock India over a lot of runs behind us and that is what happened."

Fletcher must have worked overtime to create a plan to defy India with all the advantages of playing at home. Careful study and analysis of Australia's 1-2 series loss in India seems to have paid off. The Australians paid the price for playing too much positive cricket and the English plan made the most of this.

Fletcher defended his team's tactics - labelled 'negative' by many in the media. There was a sense of pride in his eyes when he talked about the fact that his team were in the box seat with India all out for just 238, "This Test could have ended up in a very good match. Somewhere along the line we need to have a plan that lays out how we are going to dominate and win a Test match. If it is a flat wicket that is not going to help anyone, you have to come out with a plan to counter that."

The English coach was of the view that if one bowler could bottle up one end, wickets would fall at the other. Fletcher is less than amused about the flak Giles has received for bowling outside the leg stump, "Sehwag scored freely, what problem did Sehwag have with that line and length? Maybe that is the pressure we put on them and the pressure told."

"Sometimes people say with cricket that it is nice to see these sort of things where battles go on and plans takes place, and here we have a great situation! The other thing about it is that strange is when Shane Warne does it all the time it is positive cricket, because he is playing on the patience of the batter; this is what I hear."

"Suddenly when Henderson for South Africa and Giles for England do it, it is very negative. I just don't understand the inconsistent criticism."

Apart from tactics, the Englishmen have enough to cheer about the way the younger players have come through in the series. Fletcher reckons that his team has no world class players and nothing like the world class batsmen and bowlers that India has in its ranks. The coach is proud of the fact that after losing the Mohali Test, his boys have come good,

"There are a lot of youngsters who came out here and were written off as no-hopers; but we have dominated a lot of days - in the 15 days of Test cricket, we have dominated the majority of them."

Talking about the fact that young Richard Dawson never got a chance to bowl in the last Test, Fletcher said, "We had the right balance. It is all very well in hindsight; if there hadn't been the rain, Dawson would have come to the fore. Three seamers and two spinners should have been enough."

The two men to make a good impression on the tour are Matthew Hoggard and Andrew Flintoff. The fast bowlers shared eight wickets between them in the only Indian innings in Bangalore. Nasser Hussain while talking to the press was quick to praise the coach for having actually seen the value of having Flintoff rushed in to join the team. Fletcher too is happy about the performance of the two young fast bowlers filling in the slots made vacant by the withdrawal of Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick.

"That is why we quickly got Flintoff here. We just realised that we would have to have some pace and bounce. He has come here and bowled very very aggressively - unfortunately his batting has not come to the fore. That is what happens to all-rounders, sometimes they bat well and sometimes they bowl well; they very rarely put both of the departments together."

Duncan Fletcher might not have the riches of Sven Goran Errikson, who is the coach of the English soccer team. There are no Beckhams and Owens in this squad, but this man from Zimbabwe has a decent bunch of players believing in themselves, and the effect has been obvious to all.

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