December 19, 2007	Wednesday	Zilhaj 8, 1428

MELBOURNE, Dec 18: Australian great Ian Healy feels that the Indian cricket board may just have scuttled the team’s chances of winning a landmark Test series in Australia by agreeing to a cramped itinerary which will not give them enough time to acclimatise before the series.

“They didn’t have sufficient thought when doing it but have gone along with it for some reason and left themselves short for an extremely important series.

“It could be the last time we see three of their legends in action. Another thing is that they know how precious a victory is to their country and it seems to me that their administrators haven’t given themselves a fair chance,” he added.

The Indian team landed in Melbourne on Tuesday within a week of winning a gruelling home series against Pakistan and it will be in action from Thursday in their only practice match before the Boxing Day Test.

Healy feels that the visitors needed another fortnight to rejuvenate before the four-Test series against the world champions. “They are coming off some hard of late but hard cricket in totally opposite conditions. That’s not good. I just think they are going to have to cram too much, too quickly.”

Australian bookies also agree that the “weary” Indians will find it hard to match Ricky Ponting’s men who have the odds against the visitors. —Agencies