Bangladesh, Lanka springboard for Arun's dive for Ranji title

Kolkata, Jul 26 (UNI) Playing against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are part of Bengal's new coach Bharat Arun's scheme of things as he accepts the challenge of guiding the side to their elusive Ranji Trophy title for the season 2007-08.

Talking to UNI on his arrival here, Arun said, ''I know the challenge lying ahead of me. It does not create any pressure, it only motivates me to do better. I know this side has been runners twice and what I can at least do is get them the trophy.'' Arun has been someone who has been there and done it, when it comes to the domestic circuit. But he comes with an additional baggage of proving himself in face of the criticism that he was chosen ahead of the home-grown talents.

''We plan to play a couple of Practice matches in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka against their A sides to prepare the Bengal team for the domestic challenge. Bangladesh will not be a problem as CAB already has an understanduing in place,'' he said.

A burly right arm medium pace bowler and a hard-hitting middle order batsman, Arun played with much success for Tamil Nadu and was a prominent member of the Ranji Trophy winning side in 1987-88.

The former India and Tamil Nadu medium pace bowler's tenure begins on September 1, after fulfilling his present obligations with the National Cricket Academy (NCA) at Bangalore. Paras Mhambrey, Arun's predecessor, had guided Bengal to two successive Ranji Trophy finals over the last two seasons, though the trophy continued to elude the side.

Before his NCA stint, he was coach of Tamil Nadu, whom he guided to two successive Ranji Trophy finals in 2003 and 2004.

''I am here to do a job and I hope to do it well,'' he said.

Asked why the cookie crumbled at the final hurdle twice, he said, ''Its too premature to tell right now. That is what I am trying to put together talking to the players. My job will be to make the cookie tough.'' And going on those lines Arun has promptly sought the services of Dr Ketan Sooratwala, a sports psychologist from NCA, to have a four-day session initially to gauge the mental toughness of the boys and then take it on from there.

''I am trying to break up my pre-season into parts. It's like concentrating on the mental and physical toughness first and then going onto the technical and tactical aspects. This is a pressure oriented game and 90 per cent of the success depends on how you shoulder the pressure,'' he said, showing the board where he just finished holding an interactive session with the players.

How did you find the players? ''Oh! They were very open to me. The essence of success is transparency and we have been able to make each other understand that we are standing for each other. They are an excellent pack of boys, a very well gelled team with a few exciting prospects.'' Asked to name a few of the players who could be the pivots, ''there are so many of them Manoj and Abhishek are two of them. Then you have Ranadeb Bose. If Sourav Ganguly is available at some point of time we can make such good use of his wealth of experience. He adds so much courage and wisdom to the team. Deep is excellent and so on.'' On whether Bengal will play tournaments like Buchi Babu and Moin-u-Dowla, he said, ''Lets see what kind of preparations we have made. And if they are a good means to attaining our goals why not.'' Arun will be in the city till the weekend before he heads back to NCA to finish his assignment. But over the last two days he is meeting the players and trying to take back with him as much of 'first impressions' as possible.

''The sessions have been fruitful. I am happy at the way we are reacting to each other,' he said.

Deep Dasgupta, Bengal skipper, said, ''Bharat is a young coach like Paras. So he understands modern cricket and its needs. He will be an equally good guide that the team needs.'' UNI