When Team India threatened to walk out of warm-up clash
The Indian cricket team on Monday considered walking out of the three-day warm-up match even before a ball was bowled.
- Press Trust of India
- Updated: December 19, 2011 03:17 PM IST
The Indian cricket team on Monday considered walking out of the three-day warm-up match even before a ball was bowled. ÂÂ
India coach Duncan Fletcher pressed the panic button after a wet outfield delayed the start of the practice match against Cricket Australia Chairman's XI until after lunch.
It needed an assurance from Manuka Oval head curator Brad Van Dam to calm Fletcher down, who was contemplating heading straight to Melbourne along with the team.
"(Fletcher) was good about it, he goes 'what's the weather?'," said Van Dam. "I said, 'weather is going to die down, the rain's going to clear and we'll get on'. Then he wanted to know what time we'd get on (with play delayed from the scheduled 11am start).
"I said, I don't know we'll have to check with the umpires and we all made the call for 1.40pm (and that's when we got on). He was fine," Van Dam told 'foxsports.com'.
Van Dam had earlier revealed that Fletcher was seriously contemplating getting his team on the first plane out of Canberra and abandoning their three-day game here, fearing that rain was predicted for most of the week.
"A few people were just in panic stations ... obviously there was talk in the hotel or something. They looked at the wrong forecast and put one and one together and got three," said Van Dam.