The development of the fringe people is equally important. RP Singh, Venugopala Rao and Robin Uthappa are going off to Australia with the A team. These guys, particularly RP Singh, has been around the group for a few months now, but hasn’t played a lot of cricket. What he needs for his development now is to play and have some success. That’s the next step in his development. So, the process is an ongoing one. We will have some setbacks along the way. We understand that. We can’t afford to overreact even if others do.

• How do you handle the senior players in the side? Are you happy with their commitment?

We can always get better as a team. Most teams struggle away from home and Indian cricket is no different from anyone else. We need to learn to cope with being away from the support structures of home. There are always things that can be better, but as far as the players are concerned, I have no problem with any of them. From time to time, you have to speak to players about different aspects of their game or attitude. Cricketers are going to work every day, some days they feel better than others, some days they are happier with the world than they are with others, some days they are on top of the world. You are dealing with all of those fluctuations. So from time to time, you have to take a player way and speak to him. But I would like to think the players understand that each and any time I speak to them, it’s with their best interests at heart and with the best interests of the team at heart.

... contd.