I do not know too much in detail about the weather, pitch conditions in England and New Zealand, except for what I read and see in the media. Based on this input, I tend to believe that playing conditions in NZ and England may be quite similar - cold, overcast and assisting swing and seam bowling.
Despite this, NZ cricket administration is arranging to have no less than SIX practice matches for its team before the serious matches start.
On the contrary, BCCI, with its sole eye and ears on money, money and more money, did not bother to have any worthwhile practice matches of 3-4 days duration each either on the tour of South Africa in 2006 or on the recent tour to Australia.
The goof up resulted in India playing below its potential in the first test at Melbourne in Dec. 2007 and set the tone for the second test also at Sydney.
Men at the helm in BCCI should have more interest in studying such finer aspects of the game, rather than focussing entirely on generating revenues and gifting crores to the team when it wins once in a blue moon.
