New Delhi, Oct. 8: "The time to experiment has finished. Maybe we’ll do that in other tournaments. The Champions Trophy is a premier championship. We are taking it very seriously," says South African coach Mickey Arthur.

"There is a chance that we may look too far ahead. But that would only make us vulnerable," says John Buchanan, Australia’s coach.

Yet, skipper Rahul Dravid and coach Greg Chappell are of the opinion that testing different combinations for one-dayers would continue up to the World Cup.

"The World Cup is still far off. The experiments will continue till around the time of the World Cup," he said in reply to a question on when the chopping and changing that has come to mark Team India’s stop-start progress in recent months would reach a conclusion. "If other teams feel that they have settled on their combination, it is their issue. We will continue with what we have set out to do," he added at a ‘meet the press’ here on Sunday afternoon.

Added Dravid: "Winning is important, results are critical. But you cannot take away the fact that you have to develop the squad.

"You cannot say this is the point where you stop. Building a side is always important and so it has to continue. Else you will fall backwards."

The India captain felt the word "experimentation" had been wrongly tagged on in the context of Team India’s efforts. "I would call that strategising. If you want to call it experimentation and be negative about it, I can’t change it. The idea is to get the best team on the field to win. I have never taken my eyes off that (to win). Whatever it takes to achieve it, we will do that.

"There are a lot of factors involved. Form and fitness of the players and the conditions are only some of them."

Chappell said he was confident about the direction the team was taking. "I am happy with the way how things have gone so far. The players know their job, they know why they have been asked to do certain things.

"Till we have evaluated the opposition, we won’t know the combination. If there is any team who say that they have that combination, then it is wonderful. Good luck to them."

And on a closing note: "What happened in the past two months will have no bearing what is going to happen tomorrow. It is the performance on the day that matters and the failures in the past won’t matter in the next tournament."