VVS TO MAKE DC VERY, VERY SPECIAL

After setting up India’s recent face-saving Test win against South Africa with a timely half-century at Kanpur, India’s man in crisis VVS Laxman is eyeing glory in the Twenty20 format.

The Deccan Chargers captain is impressed with the players in his squad and is confident of going all the way in the Indian Premier League. “The team combination is excellent. The most important thing is we’ve got lot of match-winners in the squad. If we play to our potential, we will surely end up champions,” the Hyderabadi nicknamed Very Very Special told this newspaper on Tuesday.

How does he plan to command players drawn from various countries? “It’s going to be a challenge but then again they all are thorough professionals, who are amazing players as well as persons. I can already see them helping out the youngsters from the region in practice sessions. It’s great to have these guys in the team and I am sure the youngsters will benefit from them,” Laxman said.

Talking about possible communication gaps which can be plugged over a time period, the 33-year-old, said: “There could be minor errors but that’s what the challenge is. At the same time, it raises a lot of excitement because different players who never played together are playing in a squad but I am sure, as the matches progress, it will become better. It is important that everyone gels on and off the field for that bonding is very important to the team’s success.” Talking about the bowling attack, Laxman said, “We’ve got some amazing left-arm bowlers like R.P.

(Singh), (Chaminda) Vaas and (Nuwan) Zoysa. Also, there are very good allrounders in Scot Styris and Sanjay Bangar. Among the spinning options, we’ve got (Pragyan) Ojha, who is a very good prospect. Added to that, we have players like (Shahid) Afridi, Symmo (Andrew Symonds) and Venu (Y. Venugopala Rao) who can bowl some spin as well. Overall, I am very happy and pleased with the line-up we have.” However, “picking only four overseas players in the XI will be a tough choice since you have eight of them in the squad.” “It will be very hard to leave four world class performers out of the XI. Saying that, it also gives a lot of opportunities for the local guys to prove their mettle and the exposure will really help them,” Laxman said.

Personally, Laxman termed playing in the IPL “a great opportunity.” “This is the first time I’ll be part of something like this. In fact all of us are part of something special, and it’s very exciting. I am sure the IPL will live up to it’s expectations,” he said.

Having missed World Cup berths, is he looking at this relatively huge world event to make amends? “One cannot compare the IPL with the World Cup, for you play for your country in the World Cup, which is a great honour. I definitely miss not playing the World Cup but it is a great opportunity for me to be part of this and do well in the League,” he said.

Laxman also felt Twenty20 cricket will not affect Tests. “Though Twenty20 is a great form of entertainment, I don’t think it will be threat to Test cricket, which will always remain special as it has it’s own charm,” he said.

However, he conceded that the grace and style in batting technique may suffer. “The bottomline is you have to get runs at a quick pace.

You’ve got only 20 overs to bat and have to get as many runs as possible, which means the temperament will differ and obviously in the bargain you have to try out various shots,” he said.