They are rival skippers but Luis Garcia and David James on Friday agreed in unison that organisers of the Indian Super League need to improve the infrastructure, logistics and scheduling during the next edition of the cash-rich league.
"I think one thing (that can be addressed) is the infrastructure with regards to places for the teams to train. It's been very difficult for a lot of sides. But other than that the ISL in its first year has been wonderful and competitive," the former Manchester City shot-stopper said.
ATK skipper Luis Garcia concurred with his views and said:"On all the training things, I'm with David James. This competition has been quite fast. It hasn't been easy for the players because of the facility. Because of the training and the flights (schedule), there is no time to rest and it has been quite difficult for the players."
James cited the example of Blasters team staying in a South Mumbai hotel while the venue for the final is DY Patil Stadium in Nerul (Navi Mumbai), which is at least a couple of hours drive.
"When we are travelling, we are in good hotels but these are often an hour or more away from a training facility which is quite often inadequate. If you want a good performance, you need good training facilities. So my recommendation for next year is to get some good training pitches," the 44-year old James, who played for England in 2010 World Cup, said.
The marquee player and coach for the Sachin Tendulkar co-owned Kerala Blasters, said his team preferred to train on an astro-turf at the Cooperage stadium rather than wasting their time on travelling to the Navi Mumbai venue DY Patil.
"I didn't fancy a three-hour journey to train for an hour," he quipped.
For Garcia, who spent his best years under Rafael Benitez at the Anfield, not getting adequate rest because of the tight schedule was bit of a bother.
"We played a very hard semi-final two days ago and tomorrow, we have the final. The most important games in the competition have just three days of gap between them.
"You don't have time to rest after reaching the final. You need rest and the players will arrive in the best of conditions. These things will obviously improve in the next year," Garcia remained hopeful.
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