CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu team delivered only in patches during their Vijay Hazare campaign where they failed to make the knockouts, and coach
Hrishikesh Kanitkar minced no words in describing the side's underwhelming performance. After the loss to Haryana, the coach spoke on the side’s show and the road ahead.
Excerpts:How do you sum up the side's show where they appeared to be inconsistent?Inconsistency has been a major issue. We didn’t start well then pulled it back. We are learning, but we are also forgetting as quickly as we are learning. The team's attitude and energy was not up to the mark. If you compare us with other teams, we couldn’t match them in giving a fight. At this level, it can’t happen.
How do you assess the players’ attitude during the tournament?Some of the teams in this competition didn’t have the depth that we have in terms of numbers. There are teams which don’t have proper leagues and don’t have a pool of players and we have all of that. Even then those teams did better than us and that shouldn’t happen. It all boils down to attitude, approach and how much we want to win for Tamil Nadu. I don’t think we lack in skills but just skills are not going to win you games…
How do you look at the upcoming Ranji season?Before the
Ranji Trophy begins we know exactly where we are. For every one step forward, we are taking 2 steps backward. We realize that and have a chance to correct our mistakes. At the
Vijay Hazare Trophy
there can be no excuses for the way we played. The pitches have been perfect and the weather has been good to us. Other teams have lost matches due to rains while it didn’t happen to us.
Are there specific plans ahead of the Ranji season?I have made points. We hope to have a good camp and address things. We will be brutally honest about what we want in terms of our selection for the Ranji trophy and which players we want to back. I want to see players who show fight more than talent and do whatever it takes to win games.
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