NEW DELHI: In anticipation of India's better performances away from home, the Indian cricket board (BCCI) has tweaked the Future Tour Programme (FTP: 2019 to 2024) to ensure that there is balance in the home and away series. Sources said
BCCI's CEO
Rahul Johri
and his team have worked and submitted a schedule with almost equal number of Tests matches both at home and away in a year.
With India winning five of their home series against teams like New Zealand, England, Australia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, BCCI is convinced that the previous FTP was flawed in terms of playing so many home series at one go. The board is also persuaded to believe that "those wins at home only instilled a sense of false pride in the team". Captain
Virat Kohli had already warned on how his team wasn't fully prepared for the South Africa due to a cramped schedule.
The faulty FTP seems to have contributed to India's series loss. "This team played five of their series in the last one-and-half years only at home. They don't have a clue on playing away from home. The board has already addressed the issue," a top BCCI official said while adding that playing more than 18 months of cricket isn't the right way to approach things.
Henceforth, BCCI is also ensuring that the tour game before a series is a must. There are also members in BCCI who are of the opinion that India's problem against quality pace, swing and bounce could also be minimized by conducting camps in higher altitude like
Dharamsala
.
"If India plays equal number of Tests both at home and away, the team would at least get used to different conditions. But there isn't any excuse for the loss of form of the batsmen in South Africa," the official added.
Even constant changes in the playing XI hasn't gone down well with the BCCI mandarins. "If you want to be called invincible, you have to start winning away from home as well. This is the time for some series introspection for team building," another prominent board official added.
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