Former India coach John Wright today disapproved the ICC intiative to host day/night Test matches, saying the purists like to play under the sunlight. Promoting the Southern Institute of Technology (SIT) as its Brand Ambassador here, Wright who coached team India from 2000 to 2005, said the day-night Tests were meant to benefit television. “As a cricketer, I am a traditionalist and like to play under sunlight. The idea might attract lot of crowd but then I do not like it,” Wright said. Revealing about his association as a coach with Team India for five-long years, the former opener said, “That was a fantastic time. We saw rise of Indian cricket during this period. We had bunch of experienced cricketers like Sachin (Tendulkar), Rahul Dravid, Javagal Srinath, Anil Kumble, VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Mohammed Kaif.” “They all were passionate about working together and the desire to become world’s number one Test team and that was the reason we achieved our goal,” he said. On Duncan Fletcher as coach, he said that he should be given some time before any assessment of his work. “When BCCI assigned coaching responsibility to me, in the beginning we couldnt get result, but once we got the combination and selection correct, we started getting results.” Talking about three different captains for different formats, Wright said, “Different players suit different formats of play and that is good. But if the current captain is suitable for all formats, then I do not feel any need for having separate captains.” PTI
