As Greg Chappell, whose hours as the coach of Team India are numbered, puts his foot into his mouth every time he opens it to say something about India’s pathetic performance in the ICC World Cup 2007, someone must be laughing his heart out ensconced at his residence in Kolkata. No prizes for guessing who it is.

 

The Chappell saga in Indian cricket began on May 20, 2005 when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that Chappell would be the new coach of Team India. The six-member committee, comprising former Test cricketers Sunil Gavaskar, S. Venkataraghavan and Ravi Shastri, the then BCCI president Ranbir Singh Mahendra, the then BCCI secretary S. K. Nair and the former BCCI president, Jagmohan Dalmiya, after a much-publicized deliberation over the “presentations” made by the applicants for the post – Chappell, fellow countryman Tom Moody, West Indian cricketer Desmond Haynes, and our own Mohinder Amarnath – unanimously recommended Chappell for the post. It was said then that Chappell had scored over the other contenders with his elaborate and impressive presentation that highlighted his vision to look at the overall structure of Indian cricket.

 

The grapevine also had it that Sourav Ganguly, the then captain of India, had a hand in the selection of Chappell, whom he had approached earlier to sort out a few flaws in his batting technique.

 

And Chappell began his stint as the coach of Team India in June 2005 pledging his “commitment to excellence to Indian cricket on and off the field”.

 

It seemed that Chappell’s appointment marked the beginning a glorious chapter in Indian cricket. For, it is not too often that a team gets as its coach a cricketing great, who is a proud possessor of a record that reads: 7110 runs from 87 Test matches at an average of 53.86, and 21 Test wins as captain of the famed Australian cricket team. Chappell too announced that he was “happy with the contract”. For effect, he even greeted the Indian cricket fans and the media with a folded-hand namaste. 

 

With a batting great with an immense cricketing brain as the coach and the most successful cricket captain of India at the helm, the script sounded perfect and the cast looked impressive. But the drama that unfolded was very much an anti-climax.

 

It all began in August 2005, just two months after Chappell had assumed the role of team coach. India was on a tour to Zimbabwe then. It was in Zimbabwe that Chappell famously asked Ganguly to consider his position as captain because of his poor batting form. And, mysteriously, a confidential email which the coach had sent to the BCCI was leaked to the press. The row between the coach and the captain, which had remained a simmering disagreement, soon became an ugly war of words.

 

Chappell’s email set the tempo. In fact the email was a treatise of abuse, belittlement, muckraking, and vituperation. According Chappell’s email to the BCCI, Ganguly was not “physically or mentally fit” to lead the side. The ex-captain was accused of being “lazy and selfish”. Chappell had alleged that the team “has been made to be fearful and distrusting by the rumour mongering and deceit that is Sourav’s modus operandi of divide and rule.”

 

Harbhajan Singh, an acolyte of Ganguly, queered the pitch, for his part, with his doosra. He said that the team owed its success to Ganguly, and that Chappell was creating “fear and insecurity” among the players.

 

Though the cricket-loving fans stood divided as to who was right in this spat, a majority of the opinion polls conducted by the print and electronic media immediately after the row suggested that the people were sympathetic to Chappell and wanted Ganguly out as captain. Support to Chappell also came from a majority of the former cricketers and cricket board members. The former Indian captain Bishan Singh Bedi went on record saying, “Chappell has to be supported because he wants to take Indian cricket forward.”

 

The BCCI President R. S. Mahendra and his mentor Jagmohan Dalmiya decided to dump their blue-eyed boy, Ganguly, in order to the keep their chances alive in the cricket board elections that was due then. Rahul Dravid was made the team captain and Chappell got whatever he asked for. Ganguly, who was sacked as the captain, was also dropped from the team and was condemned to remain on the sidelines hoping against hope for a recall.

 

And the recall did come, exactly a year after. In the ODI series in South Africa in November 2006, Team India was handed out a 0-4 drubbing. The ignominy had the entire nation (including the honourable Members of Parliament) baying for the blood of the cricketers who had gone to South Africa. Chappell, of course, was in a way responsible for this denouement. His frequent experiments had left the Indian batting line-up in total disarray and a few youngsters very low on confidence and morale. And, ironically, it was Chappell’s failure that ensured the redemption of Ganguly. Ganguly joined the Test team for his second innings, gave a good account of himself as a batsman, and soon found himself in India’s squad for the ICC World Cup 2007.

 

While Ganguly’s fortunes grew northwards, Chappell’s saw a downward spiral. Team India’s shocking defeats at the hands of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the World Cup matches and its quick exit from the World Cup put paid to whatever hopes that Chappell might have entertained of continuing as Team India’s coach for another term.

 

Chappell has no one but himself to blame for the mess that he finds himself in now. During his spat with Ganguly, Chappell gave enough hints to the Indian public that he was doing whatever he was doing for the good of the team and for its success in the World Cup. He reportedly said then, “Any discussion on selection from this point has to have in mind the World Cup in 2007.” And, if Chappell got support from the Indian fans in his battle of wits against Sourav, it was, perhaps, because that the public felt that Chappell could mould Team India into a fighting unit if all the irritants (including Sourav) on his way were removed. After all, didn’t Chappell say then, “It will take time to develop a team and I suppose a decision has to be taken on which of the senior players are most likely to last and be potent enough that long”?

 

But, for all his bombast and bluster, Chappell could not deliver on his promise. It is said that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. And, the proof whether someone is a good coach is in the shape that he finds his team in. Team India, everyone knows, is in a far worse shape than it was in when Chappell assumed responsibility as the coach. 

 

And worse still, Chappell is back to what he seems to be really good at: rabble-rousing and making insinuations and innuendos. Chappell, we are told now, had SMSed his Indian journalist friend Rajan Bala more than a month back, claiming that the senior players in the side resisted changes in the team composition and were against the inclusion of younger players. And, Rajan Bala, who reportedly received the message on February 17, 2007, waited till India was thrown out of the World Cup before the revealing the contents to the media. Some journalistic ethics, that is!

 

In the meanwhile, “sources close to Chappell” were reported to have told NDTV that Chappell was upset with some of the senior players and selectors. If earlier Chappell had accused Sourav of “rumour mongering and deceit” as his “modus operandi of divide and rule”, now he accused the senior players of “hammering and abusing” the junior players. Rahul Dravid, we are informed, was “under pressure” from the senior players “who operate like a mafia”.

 

And, Chappell, the sources close to him go on to add, did not mind staying on as coach “but not with same set of players”. He was also reportedly of the opinion that the BCCI was trying to “push him out”, and wanted to put the blame on him for the World Cup loss.

 

But come what may, Chappell is not putting in his papers. In Chappell’s own words, “I am not resigning from my position. There is no question of resigning, it is a contracted job.” And, remember, it is the same Chappell who had in an interview to The Guardian newspaper said that Ganguly wanted to cling on to the India captaincy for financial reasons: “What I didn’t realise at that stage was how utterly important to his life and finances being captain was.” One may feel like asking, “Is remaining the Indian team coach utterly important to Chappell’s life and finances?”

 

Even if one grants that there might be some truth in what Chappell has got to say about the senior players, one cannot agree with Chappell’s modus operandi. If one goes by Chappell’s pronouncements in his nearly two-year stint as a coach, Chappell comes off as obstinate, overbearing, unscrupulous, and pushy. Chappell can also be accused of using the “modus operandi of divide and rule”. He doesn’t mind pitting one player against another and using the members of the press to wage his personal battles when the going gets tough. It appears that Chappell has got his ‘sleeper cells’ in the cricketing and media world, whom he can activate when needed. In other words, Chappell is neither principled nor trustworthy.

 

After his spat with Ganguly became public, Chappell said to the press, “There are some things which are non-negotiable. Fielding and fitness are two of them. Guys who are buying into it are going ahead and those who are not buying into it will find themselves by the wayside.”

 

In the same way, Mr. Chappell, there are some things which are non-negotiable. Performance and good results are two of them. Coaches who are buying into it are going ahead and those who are not buying into will find themselves by the wayside.

 

What Raj Singh Dungarpur said of Ganguly then is appropriate for Chappell now: Chappell must step down or be sacked. His sell-by date is over.