South Africa, New Zealand tours will build the team: Srinivasan

New Delhi - Indian cricket board president N. Srinivasan has hailed the Indian team for its historic 4-0 Test series win against Australia and hoped that the tours to South Africa and New Zealand will only make the side emerge stronger.

Srinivasan said the team went through a period of transition, after the retirement of some legendary batsmen, but now the board’s faith in the team and the captain has been justified.

“It is very nice to see India winning. We always had the confidence in the team. We understood that the team was going through a period of transition after some great stalwarts of Indian cricket chose to retire. But I think our faith in the team, the captain and the players have been justified,” Srinivasan was quoted on Monday as saying by a news channel.

“Cricket is a sport. In sport you cannot be winning all the time. I don’t think that the Indian players want to lose. They also want to win, they fought hard. Sometimes they had bad luck, circumstances were against them. But overall, we should be proud of our cricketers,” he said.

On the selection committee’s decision to drop senior players like Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, Srinivasan said: “I don’t want to comment on the selection but any decision taken by the selection committee has always been taken keeping in mind the future of the team.”

When asked whether it would be difficult for Sehwag and Gambhir to make a comeback, Srinivasan said: “It is for the selectors to answer. All I can say is that the team looks good.”

Srinivasan said performances by Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara will only make the fans happy.

“What we should be happy about is the performances of Shikhar Dhawan, Pujara and (Murali) Vijay. The team is looking different, looking confident. The bowlers also have performed well,” he said.