Karan Thapar: Tiger Pataudi, let us start with India's performance in the Champions Trophy. M S Dhoni has gone on record to say, "It's a little difficult for me to say whether the performance was bad." What's your opinion of India's performance?
MAK Pataudi: It was bad in the sense that we had done well in Sri Lanka. I think we should remember that the Sri Lankan wickets suited us. Also it was the spinner who got the wicket in Sri Lanka and they won't get wickets in South Africa.
Karan Thapar:As regards the performance in South Africa, you have no doubt in saying that it was bad?
MAK Pataudi: I say it's bad in the sense that the bowlers didn't do well because they weren't in a position fit enough to do well. Not necessarily physically, but as bowlers because the wickets didn't suit.
Karan Thapar:Let's begin by taking up the issue of fitness. Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj weren't fit enough to play, Sachin wasn't fit enough to bowl, Gambhir wasn't able to play in all the practice matches. Would you say that fitness was a serious problem for the Indian team?
MAK Pataudi: Well, that is the problem. I think we have to study it because a majority of cricketers are not physically agile or physically athletic. If you go back even 50 years from Vijay Merchant to Gavaskar to even Sachin and Rahul Dravid, you wouldn't say they would run a 100 yards in reasonably quick time.
There are very few Indian players who are full of agility and quick movement in the field, and the catching has been poor. There are several reasons for this. When we learnt our cricket in the 60s, the facilities were not really that good.
Karan Thapar:Would you say that fitness was the reason why India's fielding was so poor in South Africa, particularly in the game against Pakistan?
MAK Pataudi: No, I don't think it's in a particular game. Throughout the history of Indian cricket, fielding has been very, very poor. That is because the people don't have grounds to learn fielding. We don't know how to dive; we don't know how to slide because we don't have ground where we can slide on.
Karan Thapar:Fitness is the Achilles heel of Indian cricket?
MAK Pataudi: Fitness and to some extent commitment.
Karan Thapar:To some extent commitment as well?
MAK Pataudi: Yes.
Karan Thapar:On that point, would you say that in the Champions Trophy match there was an issue about India's commitment or temperament and attitude because I noticed that Wasim Akram has gone on record to say, "It's the first time I have seen the Indian body language was wasn't there."
MAK Pataudi: This is not correct because this has happened before. On several occasions, when I was playing, our body language wasn't aggressive or perhaps that positive as it should have been. So it's a bane that has been in Indian cricket for a long, long time.
Karan Thapar:Like fitness, which has been a bane of Indian cricket, commitment has been a question mark against Indian cricketers for a long time.
MAK Pataudi: Certainly, some cricketers, yes.
Karan Thapar:Both Yuvraj Singh and Younis Khan broke fingers on their right hand during practice, but whereas Yuvraj didn't play at all and left for India. Younis Khan missed one game but was there on the field against India. Was commitment a factor in that?
MAK Pataudi: Actually, it depends on how badly it was broken. I don't think it's a question of commitment as much a question of how actually bad the injury is.
Karan Thapar:Many people feel that India's bowlers simply weren't up to the challenges they were facing in South Africa. In your opinion, how bad or poor was India's bowling?
MAK Pataudi: It was poor in the sense that we can't even expect to win 50/50s in these conditions if our bowling is going to go on like this. As I said, we got away with it in Sri Lanka because the wicket suited the spinners.
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