John wright's book

- He writes about how he arrived for the first practice session with the th team. The playes left their bags in the bus, and porters came over and carried the kits out. They then went and sat on chairs where waiters served tea and biscuits. This went on for a half hour, after which Leipus had to spend another 30 mins taping players' fingers because our players only fielded with taped fingers. Wright slowly started getting rid of first the chairs, then the biscuits, and then the tea

- In nets, when it came to batting, it was impossible to stop our players. When it came to fitness, he says it was impossible to get them started.

- Our players were the slowest joggers he had seen. He told them that he had to keep rubbing his eyes to see them moving when they jogged.

- Though the players had biscuits and tea, there were no water bottles, nutrition drinks, healthy fod available for training (heh, even I carry a 1 ltr bottle when i go to the gym)

- When Aussies came to India in 2001, Wright went into the gym to see Ponting, Hayden and Slater working extremely hard. In the other part of the gym was an india player who was on an exercycle in his slippers, reading a newspaper and eating biscuits. The door opened and a waiter came in with a plate fo sandwiches. Wright looked across at Ponting, who gave him a quizzical look.

- The first time Wright saw a thin tiny guy batting, he thought this guy is good, must be our new openers, SS Das. Turns out it was Ajit Agarkar.

- Wright writes about how each player grew up. Sehwag's coach when he was a kid made him bat with a his bat case filled with sand, using only the left hand, in order to make his left forearm stronger. He would then place a bamboo slightly wide off the off stump and make sehwag practice his backlift so that the bat moved straight between the bamboo and the stump, without disturbing them

- Dhoni very early found out he could make the ball disappear. He credited it to the 1 litre buffalo milk he drank every day. Wright says the legend grew and soon became 6 litres, and Dhoni had graduated to milkshakes by the time Wright met him

- Sachin at the age of 13 (I Should have wrote this point first, because all of you have been scanning up and down to see what Wright writes about sachin, and have ignored the rest) used to bat in the nets for a couple of hours, then play a match at Shivaji Park, go to Azad Maidan and play another there, then come back and do two hours of nets, ending at 7. He played continuously for 55 days in his summer vacation.

- Kumble received no coaching

- When Dravid and another cricketer were given Myoplex, a protein drink (which all of us here in the gym drink regularly), Gaekwas saw it and created a ruckus that Wright was giving them steroids.

- Wright says he had a new manager for every series, because BCCI has to keep appointing different managers to do favors to their supporting parties. Some of the managers were weird. There was one Colonel who thought he was an yoga expert and once decided to conduct the warm-up. Another stole players' official jerseys.

- Wright says he hated dropping Laxman for the 2003 world cup, and this became a sensitive issue. Later, he was teasing Sehwag about some ads and asked Lax, 'Hey, why didnt you do any of those ads?' Sehwag gave him a weird look and said Because he didt play the world cup, John. Wright gave a sick smile, went to the toilet and banged his head against the wall.

- One  of the problems we have when we travel abroad is food - our players dont eat much as they want home-cooked food. Once, Nehra complained he was not feeling well. Leipus asked him what he had for breakfast. Nehra said, three biscuits, there was nothing else i could eat.

- Once when a player came out of the gym, Wright asked him how come he wasnt sewating at all? The player replied he had turned up the AC

- Also, the players could only jog on the ground, because if the jogged outside they would get mobbed

- Wright's exact words are, A tortoise with a double hip replacement would have jogged faster than these players.

- Wright talks about how a ten year old once came and sat opposite him in a restaurant and gave him a strong argument why Sachin should be sent back to the opening slot in ODIs

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