Kevin Pietersen may have criticised the 2011 World Cup schedule, but former India captain Rahul Dravid is in favour of it
Kevin Pietersen may have criticised the 2011 World Cup schedule, but former India captain Rahul Dravid is in favour of it. The scheduling of the mega six-week tournament was recently slammed as "ridiculous" by Pietersen who said the gaps between games were too long.
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| Rahul Dravid receives the award for being the highest run-scorer in the 1999 World Cup at a function last night. Pics/Shadab Khan |
"How can the England team play once and then in six days' time play again, and then in six days' time play again. It's ridiculous but there's nothing we can do about the schedules," Pietersen was quoted as saying.
However, Dravid's support shouldn't come as a surprise because under his captaincy India witnessed one of the worst World Cup defeats when they made a first round exit in the last edition in West Indies. "I wish we had this kind of format last time," Dravid, who received the Ceat Cricket Rating award for his stellar show in the 1999 World Cup at a grand function yesterday, quipped.
"The schedule will help conserve energy. It will give players, who are carrying niggles, recovery time before the next match. So, peaking at the right time will be important," he added.
Dravid chose India as the favourites for the World Cup. "We have a well balanced side. We have plenty of spinning options. The best part is that all our part-timers are spinners like Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan and Yuvraj Singh. That's a big advantage in the subcontinental conditions," he said.
He however, insisted that focus should not be on Sachin Tendulkar. "It is not just Sachin who wants to win the World Cup, but the whole team," said Dravid.
Kapil Dev, who won the World Cup award for his phenomenal performance in the 1983 victory, stressed on the importance of team work.
"We cannot just rely on one person. It is a team game and we can only win the Cup if all the members contribute," said India's only World Cup-winning captain.
Meanwhile, other winners of the Cricket Rating World Cup awards were New Zealand's Glenn Turner (1975), West Indies' Gordon Greenidge (1979), Kapil Dev (1983), Australia's Geoffrey Marsh (1987), Pakistan's Wasim Akram (1992), Sri Lanka's Aravinda De Silva (1996), Sourav Ganguly (2003) and Australia's Matthew Hayden (2007).
