Indians listless in practice on tour opener eve

The touring Indians appeared listless in practice on Monday -- and the cold wind and intermittent rain did not help either.

Sourav Ganguly and his men gathered inside the awe-inspiring Melbourne Cricket Ground at 10.30 this morning and went through their paces without quite looking the side that is too concerned about how it would fare on this daunting tour.

It was not quite clear if the tourists were listless because they were offered practice pitches that were used for the first time this season. Both Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra, the two left-arm pacemen picked for tomorrow's tour opener, wandered around after a few sharp spells.

Missing from the practice session was Anil Kumble, who is down with the flu. "He hasn't turned up because of flu, but nothing serious," team physiotherapist Andrew Leipus, who himself was not in the best of health because of a similar malaise, said.

Leipus also said Ganguly had recovered sufficiently from his groin injury to play in tomorrow's three-day game against the Victoria Bushrangers, though a bigger gap in recovery would have helped more.

Ganguly chose to take indoor nets, where he practised against short deliveries on concrete, while coach John Wright marshalled the other men inside the stadium.

The usual practice nets at the MCG are no longer available because of the massive construction work that has been commissioned on one of Melbourne's most loved venues -- a heritage site on the tourism brochure.

Sachin Tendulkar was one of the early ones to pad up, and it was with one of his new pair of pads. The little master also tested more than one of his willows which will be called up for use on this tour. Once he was through with his stint, he was offering advice to Zaheer Khan, who wanted to draw upon the experience of the little genius.

V V S Laxman was busy making enquiries with the curator about the nature of the pitch, which is of the drop-in variety.

Put it down to weather or general practice conditions, Wright was in an unusual surly mood and ordered an Indian journalist off the players' limits through a security personnel.

Wright generally was unapproachable as after only a couple of hours of nets and catching practice, he herded his boys to the indoor nets.

Only Ganguly stayed back for an endurance-building stint with trainer Gregory Allen King who put him through some sharp sprints and had the Indian captain gasping for breath.

Later Ganguly said everything which a good guest would, praising the past couple of days in Australia as splendid and the facilities as very good.

"It is a joy to tour Australia, which is one of my favourites," said Ganguly. "Unlike in India, where we are mobbed all the time, here the boys can go out and really let their hair down."

It is an approach that has been suggested to them by no less than Sandy Gordon, the Perth-based Australian psychologist who is said to have done wonders to the team spirit in the World Cup in South Africa, where the Indians finished runners-up.

Gordon has asked the boys to go out and mingle with outsiders, which would allow them not to get too tensed up. He is likely to catch up with the Indian players in Brisbane before the first Test begins there on December 4.

"He has been very good to us and we have had a few sessions with him since the World Cup. But I would rather have a regular arrangement with him rather than the off-and-on kind. We look forward to meeting him in Brisbane," Ganguly said.

The Indian team had another optional session in the afternoon, but only a few returned to do whatever they could on Melbourne day.