It can be plausibly argued that the problem with Chappell wasn't his candour, it was his propensity to intrigue. Several cricket journalists I've read or spoken to (and this includes Chappell's protagonists) testify to his habit of sending sms messages to journalists leaking his views on players, selection and policy. The players who disliked him complain about how manipulative he was. They might be wrong and self-interested but it's odd that Indian journalists and commentators should find the stereotype of the straight-talking Australian and the truth-denying Indian easier to credit than the chorus of allegations that Chappell's preferred mode for communicating with the media was the modern equivalent of harem whispers.

Just as odd is the 'balanced' view that equates criticism of Chappell and his methods with a willful blindness to the structural problems of Indian cricket. I find no difficulty in holding in my head (at the same time) two related but distinct ideas: 1) that the BCCI presides over a mess and 2) that Chappell is a terrible coach. The need for structural reform and the necessity of making the best of what you currently have aren't contradictory goals. A good coach will have a vision of the future, but his primary job is in the here and now. Chappell had poor results in the here and now when he coached the national side in arguably the worst organized cricket system in the world (India) and he had indifferent results when he coached a provincial side in the best organized cricket system in the world (Australia). It seems to me that Chappell is the constant here.

Clint Eastwood was a great star who returned to the movies to direct others in hugely successful films. Greg Chappell as coach is Clint Eastwood in age…only without the hits. Speaking for myself, I'm delighted he's gone.

Spot-on!

Well said. Couldnt have put it better. Have to agree with Sanjay Manjrekar though about Indian players taking responsibilty for their poor performances of late and the limited role of any coach in a teams performance. I also feel that the Indian team is not as bad as it seems after the WC exit. They will bounce back!

Well said. Couldnt have put it better. Have to agree with Sanjay Manjrekar though about Indian players taking responsibilty for their poor performances of late and the limited role of any coach in a teams performance. I also feel that the Indian team is not as bad as it seems after the WC exit. They will bounce back!

Agree with your assessment of Chappell. Even though I liked his penchant for straight talk, I had a big problem of his coaching through the media.

Thats calling a spade a spade mukul! am afraid -somewhere subconsciously all of these people (manjrekar et al) have started beleiving in the 'process' BS - not a bad thing really - but I would have bought it if chappell was made say the head of NCA - but he was made the Indian coach and like you rightly said his success would have been to get any given bunch to perform - look at dav whatmore - he has identified strengths in a team considered 'minnows' - Even sandip patil delivered with a kenya - There is a saying which goes - the dancer who doesnt know to dance blamed the stage - that's what I think chappell is doing!! Thank god he is gone - let us now give him the role of cricket administrator and see if the 'process' helps!! just kidding!

As you say, the problem with Greg Chappell (and Ian Chappell for that matter) is that he is completely and utterly obnoxious! His personality would grate on anyone, never mind a team in close proximity to him for two years!

Chappell was the wrong coach at the wrong time, however, the problem for indian cricket is that there is to much money floating around creating inflated egos, players and board members etc etc.... and basically your team has no got the skill nor talent to play and win against the best around, hopefully this world cup will be a wake up call through out indian cricket, players, backroom staff even the media that basically indian cricket is not as good as it thinks it is.... wake up smell the coffee!!!!

I remember very clearly during the appointment of the coach - India had two options - Chappell and Moody. Thank God that India opeted for Chappell - and Moody moved to Sri Lanka.

I could not fathom why India opted for Chappell when Moody had so much more credentials as a coach. Chappell as a coach is a failure. I just hope that Moody stays with the Sri Lankan Team for another stint.

This is as frank as an Aussie (like Chappells) is!

Thank God someone stood up to all this crap being spouted about Indians in general. At the end of the day we lost a game to Bangladesh... perhaps more pointedly we looked an increasingly disorganised team that had little confidence in individual abilities and had run out of form. Chappell has to take the blame, along with the tinkering selectors of not being able to put together a team that had the faith to perform to its potential. A change in coach in and of itself should significantly help improve things though just because its a breath of fresh air. The efforts to explain this as something embedded in our national psyche or a dilapidated system is ridiculous. We have made progress in every field possible, Indians are an outward looking aggressive bunch that have the fire to succeed in whatever they do and the confidence that they can.. the cricketers are probably in this group too. Further, looking at what the West Indies is going through and the lack of interest in cricket in general in countries such as England, I would imagine that in comparison we have a pretty good system in place. Most important, the sheer number of people who want to excel will mean we have quality continuously coming through. The demands and pressure that you have to go through of reaching a select 11 among a population of aspiring millions if not a billion should prepare you well enough to handle pressure on the global stage. If someone can get these guys to a level of athletic fitness that competes with the best, we will have one of the top 3-4 teams in the world. What we need is a selection committee that has the backbone to drop non committed cricketers and persist with young players through rough patches. Ranatunga and Ian Chappell can pontificate about Australians and South Africans all they want and act as though we are in a state of despair, but this same country reached the World Cup Finals 4 years ago... with the same system we have in place now. Things will return to normal and with an elite core comprising Yuvraj, Raina and the constant stream of fast bowlers we will be as well if not better position to pummel the opposition on some days and play badly on others, but youngster's fielding standards, their strength and pace are improving... the exceptional talents of Sachin and Kumble will replicate itself in time... and we will win. Just because we want to succeed as much as the other guy, and if you believe you are upto the mark in your field of endeavour then chances are, so are Indian cricketers.

I think its time for us to face the truth. We have stop worshiping the so called over rated players and make cricket a team game rather depending on indivisuals, who perform in every 10th game when the axe is on them. We should learn from Lanakans and Bangalis and even the Irish that what team can do on a given day.
Totally agreed with Sanjay as he always portrays the right picture and neutral about his observations rather being an indian.

Will you shoot the messenger if the message is delivered the wrong way or look at the message he wants to convey!?!

Chappel's way of sending messages may be wrong his way of dealing with big egos of Indian players may be wrong!!

but the point is not this. the point we should discuss is what he says is right or wrong and i do believe and fully agree with manjrekar here that he showed mirror not only to players but us as well. he has asked questions which we fear to answer. we the worshippers of cricket lords.

boycott once famously said that its not about tendulkar its about india...we must remember that!

its not about whether chappel was right in his ways or not only if we avert our directions/debates to the "message" what one wants to convey is right or wrong we can come to conclusion which will benefit indian cricket in long way.

When the debate is on who is right rather than what is right its better not to have debate at all.

We were never great winners and after this world cup it is established forever that we are not even good losers!

I could not agree more. What this controversy has shown is that everyone is keen to take sides, the fans, the various segments of the press. By taking sides, we subconciously assume one party is the devil, the other the poor victim. The reality is often somewhere in between, with both sides equally at fault.

I would extend Mukul's argument and claim that I find no difficulty in holding in my head (at the same time) multiple related but distinct ideas, all of which have brought us to this dispair: 1) that the BCCI presides over a mess 2) that Chappell is a terrible coach, 3) the star players are repeatedly underperforming in key situations, and perhaps focussing more on the commercial benefits and self-interest and 4) India has absolutely no bench strength, which elongates the careers of stars, and allows them to neglect their performaces, while making the job of any coach/selector that much harder.

It is clear that Chappel had serious shortcomings as a coach despite his pedigree. Hired as a frank, no-nonsense man, he has turned out to be a caricature of the straight-talker, an obnoxious man with no diplomacy, tact or sensitivity, unable to maintain confidentiality, a sure recipe for disaster. Even if we were to fire the entire Indian team and start from scratch, I would not trust Chappel with the task of nurturing India's next generation of cricketers.

Those who harp too much on Indian team's inability to handle the 'honesty' of a foreigner, do a disservice to John Wright, who managed to handle the same set of players a lot better (atleast for the first 75% of his tenure). His understated yet tough approach was the kind of workable ethic that is shared by other successful coaches such as Tom Moody.

The senior players cannot hide behind the 'horrid coach' theory for their continual lack of performance. It is not just the World Cup, we have failed repeatedly since 2003 in key games. Cricinfo's recent study of how the Indian batting has failed bowler friendly ODIs is only part of the picture, a similar sad analysis is due for test matches too.

Indeed why does a batting line-up with more than 400 tests, 1000 ODI, heaven knows how many 1000s of international runs between them need a coach at all? Why resort to sulking and blaming an individual for spoiling the team spirit, when the best way to restore the spirit is to perform well?

Before and after the storm
--------------------------

Cricket is at it's best when the game is played the way it should be. The naked truth here is that 'potential to perform and to withstand the pressure of playing cricket at the elite level is very scarce in the team's outlook'. Now let's look at this issue from all the angles.

Coach: Agree it or not, a coach's responsibility is not just psycho-analysis or critic-establishment. It's rather knowing the team and being a part of it. A coach sends himself to the pitch in the form of players. His views and approach reflects a lot in the ability of the players. So not taking the blame for the loss and pointing finger on the mistake is wrong. Rather being straight forward and analysing the issues in the locker room is more crucial. I do know about the locker room ethics as I do play sub-district level cricket in Australia. The coach cannot put on the pads which is true, so now let's see from the players point of view.

Team INDIA: When you represent a nation full of cricket worshippers. I would not call fanatics because its not as worse as the footballing nations. So the other nations who call us cricket fanatics, please look at yourselves with ur favorite sport. Please you have no superiority to deliver sanity. So back to the players. First taking responsibility when you play a serious game. And don't fall back on one or two guys. Yes I'm talking about depending on just the key players. The key is the team. Working as a unit. This comes only when you strive for oneness in the team. To cut short the long story, the players didn't play their potential. And it's a bitter truth. Calling their careers in the line, would be a hasty decision.

Indian cricket: I would totally blame the mode in which the cricket selections are done. The raw truth is the unsung bias on players. With a massive amount of cricketers at our disposal, why dont we search for talent within every group. Why dont we make our competitions right. Please develop good facilities within India, than building stadiums for foreign countries just to make money out of the game. We love the game not the commercial part of it.

My view is...India should look back at itself. Select players based on current performance. A coach who gets the better player out of everyone and making the players know their strengths and weaknesses.

I'm happy that there will be a revolution in Indian cricket..very soon.

Hi Mukul, must tell you the "Chappel" way that I am not pretty impressed with your article this time.

Why on earth is every one looking at the end product (the cricketers, the coaches, the results). Why does one not peek into the system as such. If I were a journalist I would do a little peek a boo into the functioning of the BCCI and find out what the hell they are doing with all this money. How can we expect professionalism from the players (in between a huge pay does not qualify someone to be a professional) when the BCCI is filled with, I dont know what to call them. Charity begins at home and therefore the system has to be revamped. I find it a slap on every indian cricket fans face that a politician is the head of the bunch of jokers! mama mia!

If a particular child in a family misbehaves, the problem lies with the child, but if all the children in the family misbehave, then the problem lies with the parents. The same applies to indian cricket. I dont need a phd in journalism to get that right do I?

"The world richest sporting body cannot provide a team of fighting men!". Aye mate, a good topic for a phd research in Journalism!!!
Augi, Germany

money sucker is gone --- sucking the money of india
1. Giving a team which cant make to world cup super 8.(With this team India went to world cup final 2003).
2.Breaking teams moral by playing politics among team members.
3.God knows what is in the final report that will help to destroy the career of Indian cricket.

He is a coach not god , treat him like coach and dont allow him to rule india.

Very well written. In my experience the people who proclaim themselves as 'straight talking' are usually the most crooked ones.

after a long time a post that one can agree with completely. chappel has been a failure as a coach. this is not meant to say that all is hunky dory with the indian team, but chappels shortcomings can not be overlooked in this case.

with one problem out of the way, the bcci should now work on cutting out the dead wood from the team and start rebuilding in right earnest.

There are two distinct facts that I notice in this whole episode. Chappell's integrity is questionable, especially with his ways of approaching the media in an indirect manner. No self respecting coach should have done this, especially if he is expecting the team to rally behind him.

Another factor that deeply disturbs me is Sachin playing the "sentiments" card to the masses. It is sad to see a great player resorting to such tactics to gain brownie points.

Indian cricket is in an absolutely terrible state.

Sunil Gavaskar was the best coach India had..Under Gavaskar, India made a record winning 17 matches chasing..won a series outside the subcontinent after 20 LONG years, won a series in West Indies after 35 YEARS, won a test match in South Africa for the FIRST TIME EVER...
Its Great that Greg Chappel hasn't renewed his contract. Its time we went back to the golden era of Indian Coaches

I really go with Sanjay's argument, people had written that coach has to bore the team not performing, so if the team performs its the coaching performing isnt it?, then y are we calling Kapil dev as a great captain who had won us the world cup 25 years back, or y do we call Lloyd, Imran, Waugh or Ponting as best captians, how many of us all can say and name the coaches of these men when they won the world cup, look at the face of our indian players, they dont have the nthing to win matches, c their fitness, with 5o runs on board these fellow wanted by runners to ru, look at other teams especially Australia, South Africa, Newzealand or Srilanka for that matter, they rarely use by-runners bcos they dont get hurt soon, if they get hurt they will not intend to play the series, but our stalwarts wanted to play all the matches with one main intention of making money. Guys and gals lemme tell u one thing India has been always an average team like an average student, dont expect them to score centum in board examination yar, if u think that way then u r not a good follower of cricket.

What ever has taken place in the last few days is an indicator of the days to come. When a coach is appointed to do a job he should be allowed to do his job without outside meddling, The media has elevated our cricketers to such heights that it has has made them feel like invincible Gods. When the coach made them realise that they were mere mortals who have to fight for their place in the team thats when the ego syndrome got it. Tendulkar must realise that if a coach comments about his commitment i am sure he is commenting about his present form and not refering to his 17 years service to the nation as claimed by him. Tendulkar bhai you are a professional and you are paid to do your job. You and your ageing bunch of dead wood should not emotionally black mail the country by making us feel that we are obliged to forgive you for your disgracefull performance in the world cup. Tendulkar your 17 years of experirence and service to the country only succeeded in getting us out of the world cup. The Senior Indian Player's Body language on field and in the players sitting area was a clear indicator that they did not have even an ounce of desire to win the world cup for India.
Now its the time for The Senior "Mafia' to take responsibility for this mess and gracefully step down admit that you are totally out of form and let some on in form take responsibility to bring India to its winning ways.
Our Wise old selectors should take some time off go to the Himalayas do some serious thinking about their ability to select the right people to do the job.. for Gods sake bring back Kiran More at least he had the guts to make bold decisions.
We need a Professionaly trained coach and a Strong Headed Manager.

God Save Indian Cricket.........

For once, Mukul, I think your instinctive 'Indian' insecurity got better of your thinking. You may be right that Chappell wasn't the greatest coach; and you may be right that Indians are capable of straight talk; but both those points don't lead to the conclusion that this bunch of senior player could deal with straight talk (to spell it out more clearly: Not all Indians can deal with straight talk.). All the ridiculous hullabulloo over the Sourav incident is a case in point - a captain with a terrible and deteriorating batting record was rightly dropped and it became a controversy over personalities. Now the refrain is that Chappel made players insecure...and that is why they failed to jell as a team. Does that mean that all Indian players should be given a lifetime employment guarantee - like the bureaucrats that roam Delhi. Well actually, the senior players seem to have such a guarantee defacto. And they have begun to perform as efficiently as the Delhi babus. Chappell tried to shake this boat - whatever one may feel about his methods. And that has led to a team rebelling against its leadership. Its shameful really.
That Chappell would have left was predictable, especially after Tendulkar's petulant outrage. But where that leaves India, I am not so sure. Surely, the BCCI is not going to reform itself. The best hope we have is of a team that can play cricket with passion and commitment, like the Irish or the Sri Lankans.

I say drop Tendulkar, Sehwag, Harbhajan - let them fight for their place in the team. They were great and when they are great again, we will let them in the team. Bring in a bunch of young players who at least won't insult the fans of Indian cricket.

The issue should not be whether Greg Chappell is a great coach or not. Are the players good enough. Just two days back before the game against PSV Eindhoven, Rafa Benitez said that a coach cannot be a genius if the players are not good enough. He told the journalists that even with the best tactics in the world, if he put 11 journalists on the pitch, they would lose. Frankly, Mukul, this Indian team stinks. I have followed all the major international sports for 35 years and the one constant factor for all successful teams and individuals is the fantastic work ethic that they have, whether they be football teams, basketball teams, tennis players, golfers, swimmers, gymnasts, athletes etc. Without this work ethic, you can never be champions. This Indian team with all its glorified overpaid, pampered, physically unfit superstars has the worst work ethic I have seen in 35 years. I have nothing but absolute contempt for them when I compare them with people like Roger Federer, Tiger Woods, Dwayne Wade, Lebron James, Michael Phelps, Steven Gerrard and many more. With or without Greg Chappell, the situation will not change.

Agree with you that the discussion of this situation need not digress into national stereotypes. But "thin skinned" and "neurotically sensitive" are apt descriptions for this squad of losers.

With the exception of Dravid, none of them has the discipline, selflessness, moral fibre and capacity for continuous self improvement that is needed.

You can make out through the body language of Sehwag, Harbhajan and Yuvraj - each of whom believes that he has arrived in life years ago and has nowhere else to go.

You can make out through the graceless sight of Sachin talking about how he has given his life to cricket etc. The underlying message is that his place is on a pedestal as an object of worship.

As for Ganguly....he is probably the cancer that Chappell was referring to - cured in 2005 but recurred in 2006 !

The reports of these guys forming coteries and plotting to undermine the coach and captain are something that I find very believable.

As expected Greg has been made the big scapegoat for WC debacle and all the senior players can continue with their place in the team as well as their commercials(even without putting up a good performance). Next WC is 4 yrs away. Meanwhile enjoy some gr8 victories and records by playing Zimbabwe, Kenya, Bermuda!
Congrats to Tendulkar on (almost sure as the drama is going as per script)becoming captain for a (un)lucky third time!

Point here is not about chappell being good or bad ut about our players performing miserably. I mean if it has come to a stage where Sachin's out there with statements about coach... I guess the blame lies with the players for not measuring up to the occasion when it demands and sadly enough for all the name and fame they (at least think) have not for the first time either.....

Forget Chappell and his coaching methods, we don't know how the players reacted to his statements. We don't know the inside story to these things.
All I can say is that I've seen the Australians and the other top teams, they've taken their cricket to another level all together.
We can sit back and complain about coaches, but what are we going to do about all the other issues that plague our cricket? our soft attitudes, or physical weakness, our lack of bench strength? Was all this Chappell's fault too?
Why does everyone tend to get so defensive? Chappell has left. So what can we do now? We can simply crib about what sort of a coach he was or we can also look at our exposed cricketers and cricketing system and call for an overhaul.
Lets wake up at least now! please!

Very accurate and a refreshingly frank assessment. For all his invocation of the holy word (now 'inflammatory')process, he himself never played by the rules. 'Process' also entails that members of a unit be honest with each other, do not leak out news and must make adjustments (ideological and personal) for the good of the unit. There is a difference between a management guru and a manager which he failed to realise.

However, I hope that we do not discredit the word 'process' because of Guru Greg. There are institutional problems with Indian cricket (and not with Indian psyche) and we need to address those with sincerity.

Well said and well argued. Said would roll over in his grave if he read what Sanjay Manjrekar, Anand Vasu, Sambit Bal et al are pushing as the new "Clash of Civilizations" - the essentially fair, but hard taskmaster Sahib losing ground to the scheming Hindoo / Native who knows only to nod in agreement in public and defy in private. For all the process I hear, and all the inflexibility shown by the seniors, when was Chappell ever keen to review his own processes, specially when they brought no result and when was he flexible to listen to other school of thoughts ? Case in point - how did Ian Frazier qualify as a bowling coach.

Greg never had a true "process", as that entails review, and adjustment. He had a fixed method of working things to his own liking. That is not a process.

First of all, Greg's record was no better or worst than John wright. Look at the stats. Our boys will go to Bangladesh, kick some butt, and we will all say, " see what differece a good coach makes". We can blame greg, but what about performance. Is Sachin willing to give back some of the money he made because he failed. Unfortunately Indian players feel that they are bigger than the game. Until they held accountable, no coach will make any difference. I didn't like some of the things Greg did, nevertheless, lets not say that he was the cause of taking the indian cricket down. And thsoe that feel that Patil delevered with Kenya obviously don't know how Kenya made it.

Well i may be the first person who is not at all surprised by the elimination of the indian team. and i think its their good luck that they are not in super 8, because i'm sure that they will loose all theor 7 matches, and think about it what will be scenario then? and why i'm not surprised that we are not in super 8 is bcos of simple reason, that we are still on experiments, we dont have set opening pair, for batting nor for bowling, we dont have fix spinner, actually no player knows that what position he has to take in match. we put Sehwag and Robin for openning one is totally out of form and other dont have any experience. few days back Shrishant was our front bowler with Munaf and now ???? few days back we had Romesh as our spinner, and now? so !!! i think Greg is still experimenting the things may be he has next world cup in his mind. and keep on shouting for young players so that they may be in his team for nexy world cup, look at Australia, South Africa, Lanka, all of them are still banking on their experienced players. Right now i think , Sir Viv, or Steve, or May be Ian Botham would be the best choice for our coach. From India i think Ravi Shastri is better choice, he is good in communication, trategy, Planning, and also have some good repo with players. He has fair enough experience and also played under some of the finest players, and was part of the team who win world cup, Chamions of champion, Asis cup and so on. so GOOD LUCK to Ravi Shastri. yes you will be the next.

For those looking to blame Chappell....here is all the info you need to know... straight from cricinfo
http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/288746.html

I doubt if this comment is going to be published...so far whenever I've put something out that differs from the slobbering "you are so right mr whatever" is submitted..it never makes it to the main page. But it would be good to let the masses who worship the stars like tendulkar know that if these guys quit whining and actually scored some runs...there wouldnt be a need to whine in the first place as no one can question their place in the team.

I cannot understand the hue and cry surrounding the exit of team India from the world cup. First off all ours is not a strong team to beat the top guns such as Australlia, South Africa and to an extent Newzealand. Compare and assess player by player in their current form and we end up saying none of our players matched with the current form of players from these countries. For instance take the opening batsmen, can any one say there is atleast one player in the whole Indian team who can match with the current form of Gilchrist,Hayden,Smith or any others.Take the case opening bowlers, the story is same. Back biting and back stabbing in Indian cricket is not new. It was there long before I learned to see the game of cricket.In my youngers days the ego or personality clash was between Kapil Dev and Gavasakar, then Azaruddin and Sachin, then Ganguly and Sachin etc.......and now Dravid. Everyone has their own supporters and group. This is a phenomenon in todays world and not limited to Indian cricket alone. Be it in Pakistan, Srilanka, Australlia, England, West Indies, groupism and personality clash is there and this menace can never be curbed, but it is usually buried for some small period for certain goals to achieve. Let's atleast bury for some time, all these ego and personality clash for the resurrection of Indian cricket.

As an Australian of Indian origin, it is both sad and at the same time frustrating to follow the orchestrated finger pointing by the players, the BCCI and the coach after their exit from the World Cup. I fully agree with the comments of Mr. V. Prabhakar. Sachin can go on and on about his life-time committment to Indian cricket, but the hard cold fact is that he is a liability in the team. He has not improved an iota in the last 5-6 years, and on the other hand, his performance as a batsman, a fielder and a bowler has gone from bad to worse. In the modern world of super fit and highly skilled cricketers, the Indians come of as lazy sloths, almost pedestrian in nature, with no drive, energy or motivation to win games. Their singular world cup win was a flash in the pan, and their claims to being world beaters will always be laughed at from now on. We are what the Sri Lankans were 10 years ago. It is a long hard trek ahead.

Greg Chappell had just about started perfecting the Fine Indian Art of Spreading the Blame or Finding the best Scapegoat, and would have succeeded,had he notinadvertently implicated the (presently clay footed) God of Indian Cricket.

I dare to put forward another hypothesis-Rahul Dravid always burnt with the desire to oust Ganguly and used Greg to get rid of him...but did not take into account the Indian Public's fickle sympathy for the underdog...and Saurav's own powers of bloody minded self belief made himcome back.Stupidly,Greg started crowing about his "succeess"in Throwing Ganguly and Zaheer out top pasture and rehabilitating them.

If at all I had any quibble about this team,it would have been about Raina and Kaif not being picked.Why Kaif?Because he did quite wellin difficult batting conditions and Raina ,well with his fielding,and exposure,was bound to come good.Apart from that the best team was picked.

I believe Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappell are hand in glove,Rahulis terribly insecure about his leadership.

I believe Dravid lost the respect of the seniors by becoming Greg's stooge and never standing up for his players.

I believe Dravid should go definitely as Captain.Bring Ganguly back as Captain with a 1 year brief to groom the next Captain....Sehwag/Yuvraj.

Appointing Sachin would be a backward step and would solve nothing.

Indian Cricket needs young talent.Look around they are there..Raina,Rohit Sharma,Tiwari...

Not so good to see Sachin begging for his place

The Indian team should have stuck with about twenty players and tried and trained them to get ready for this World cup. Take a look at Sri Lanka and New Zealand, they had miserable record in One day cricket but they stuck to their choices and let them develop. Unfortunately, the selectors and the board didn't have such courage to let a group of people to develop and play.
I am not suggesting that the coach be completely absolved of the results. Don't just blame him, the cricketers, the selectors, the system and the corporate sponsors and the media can take as much of the blame. Just to be honest, this current Indian team wasn't good enough to be in the semifinals. To suggest that would be an affront to the four teams that will eventually get there.

SPOT ON!!! Indians need to come out of the comfort zone and look at the West or I should say the WHITE culture...Sometimes it is good to say things as they are rather than sugar-coating it.. The bottom line is India played horribly and I somehow have an inkling that the players who were against Chappell, made sure that they exit out of WC by their performance and ensure that Chappel is kicked out as coach. If the BCCI have the guts, they should "rest" these senior(GOD) cricketers for the BD tour, have an interim coach, preferably, Dav Whatmore as a trial run before the ENG tour, appoint Yuvi as captain and Kaif as VC. It is high time that these senior players are gently shown in the door in the next year or two and parallely building up bench strength. This is the only way that India can ensure that when these senior crickters leave, a vacuum is not created...

Mukul: from the sublime to the ridiculous - that's how your articles are - much like the batting of the Indian Team!

Greg Chappel is leaving has resigend Sir, GET THE MESSAGE!!

Why do you still continue to write about him and how glad you are that he has gone? That's pure childishness and immaturity - perhaps a bit of attention grabbing on your part? Somehting you seemed to have abhored in Greg Chappel.

Why don't you concentrate more on how we can improve the Cricket in India or do you want to become the Shobha De of cricket journalism?!?!?!

Disappointed not befitting Cricinfo's stature to put such a petty article on their web site.

Nirbhay Singh

Truth nothing but truth - that's what Greg tried to say, but unfortunately it is always difficult to accept the fact. indian Cricket is in the hands of mafias, bookies, corporates, etc who are the deciding forces for the selection Indian team.
Despite their regular failures in the field our so
called fit for nothing senior palyers are in the
team on the mercy of the above said mafias. No one
can save the Indian team unless these senior players themselves retires (which is not possible)
& pay the way for the yougsters who should be selected on the basis of performance & strictly commited to the cricket game alone. Indian cricket board has not gut's to do so & hence it is only a dream. But if these things not happen,
one thing is sure... soon or later Cricket charm will go as Hockey did - there are various signs have already started. Jai Hind.

I agree with chappel being not a good coach but I can't agree that a coach can do a good job with what he has been given now and here. A coach can only deliver if the players put in an effort to learn. Unfortunately Chappel(a batting legend himself) has been put up with Stars of Indian cricket who think they know everything and are very laxed. Sure they may want to represent India and want to give their best but being stars they dropped their fitness and practice to such low levels even god cannot do a good job with them. Let's not talk about lesser mortals like Chappel. People need to remember it needs to hands to clap. A coach is only as good as a sincere team. Indian cricket team is bogged with internal politics. I know it because one of my friend is best friend of Laxman, I had privilage of taking his wife's ticket and other players tickets to watch an India Vs Pakistan match in Burmingham. He says that Ganguly and Dravid both undermine his presense in the team as he is threat to their captaincy and only Tendulkar favours him. Offcourse he even blew his selection chances now. Point is nothing is right in this Indian team and no coach can do anything with their attitudes. There is no passion in them their bulging bellies and fading reflexes are a reflection to their attitude.

Players from india and pakistan take their place in the team for granted. Our players have no dedication, no passion for the game. Most of our spoiled players play for themselves, to make more records so they can't be broken. Just look at tendulkar, the only reason he is playing for india right now is to make more runs towards his 14000+ runs so it won't be broken for another decade or so. Just look at how younis khan plays for pakistan, his batting style shows that he doesn't play for the team. He plays for himself, or he plays in the team because his place is secure. Being a pakistani, i am glad that inzi has retired as a captain because he did not have leadership, he was a great batsman no doubt but only when he wasn't a captain. It is sad to see that both teams are a mess right now and our management does not realize that success starts from the bottom. We need to improve our work out methods so that our players are fit for the whole game and not get tired after half a day. We need to improve our fielding, we need to also develop a killer instinct that australia has that just go out and win. No matter who we play (ireland or bengladesh), we should take that game as we are playing a world class team. Our politicians need to be out of our cricket making decisions ala musharraf. What the hell is he got to do with making cricket decisions in pak cricket. If we want to challenge australia then we are going to have to play like them or else we dont even have a slightest chance to win against the top teams.

I am happy to see Chappel go. He was a bit of an anarchist, trying to destroy the system so that order might emerge. It did not work because it was simply not his job. His job was to make sure that the players agree on a cohesive strategy and are fit , motivated and happy. he failed miserably especially in the last two counts and therefore should go. I would love to see the BCCI get a paid CEO instead of an elected president. and I hope they get rid of whatever remaining dead tracks are there in the country. Going by the domestic results, it does appear that pictches are more sporting now. Cricket is a business and the BCCI should run it like that.

Suresh you say that Indian team is like what Sri Lanka used to be 10 years ago...SL won the WC 10 years ago!

what a wc it could have been...what it has become...exit of india and pakistan has redcued the interest...i am not sure how important a coach is...but someone has to tell sachin, dravid, ganguly, sehwag that winning is the only option. Everytime they should play to win...they should attack 600 balls...they should believe in themselves...belief comes from winning...win comes from belief...but how many times we have seen that if we are 2 wickets down ...we will crawl at 3.5 per over...fear of losing is haunting everyone...shouldn't be the case....we have the ability to mass huge huge totals...we should target 350+ in every game....

India won the WC beacuse Kapil ,as captain saved India from a defeat to Zimbabway. Same thing happened last time when Ganguly as a captain saved India from a defeat to a minnow(Kenia)and reached the fianl. So this time another minnow Bangladesh caused blush because there was no captain to save India. The fact speaks for itself.

This fixation with Chappell the coach v the players is a bit strange. Sure, it is the players who perform out there in the middle, but isn't that true of just about every other sport, soccer included, where coaches have often paid with their jobs for the failure of their team? Ask Sven-Goran Eriksson! So if it happened with Chappell as well, it is neither unusual nor unique.

Good piece. I especially like that finally someone called this "indians weren't ready for a foreigner's straight talk" what it is: orientalist nonsense. What Chappell said may have been right but the way he said it was wrong. Wright was a foreigner but apparently knew how to get things done. And since Chappell measured players by their performance we must measure him by his. At the end of the day, this team did not progress to the Super 8s on his watch. A team not too dissimilar from that of 4 years ago. For this he bears responsibility - not in whole measure but substantially. He should go because he didn't perform - Gred old man, you reap what you sow! - A

I think Mukul got this one wrong. If you take the basic point that Coaches can have a very limited impact, then our players have let us down terribly. And the mirror that Greg displayed to the "star" players", they didn't really like what they saw in it.

Great article Mr. Kesavan. This reminds me once again why you are my favorite cricket writer. You cut through the "straight talking" hype and laid it threadbare.

The problem with our seniors is that they are one-dimension players. Ganguly or Sehwag for example depend on scoring boundaries to have a good game. They are a liability in other areas. Of course, there are times when they come up with a very good catch or important wicket, but that is more of a rarity than a common occurance.
One other point, economically, it is advtg for the seniors to have juniors who dont perform well with bat/bowl (since they are better in the field).
Unless, the board respects fitness and 100% effort as "must-have" aspects of the game, things are not going to change.

Excellently put! You said what I always wanted to say. That BCCI is a terrible organization and cricket in India is in a mess and whatever success we have had in the past is despite BCCI and not because of it. And also that, Greg Chappell never had the credentials of beiong a cood coach and I find it no wonder that he failed at the international level when he could not manage to get a state side winning. WELL SAID!

I am glad Chappell is gone but I would be gladder still if the man responsible for bringing him would be gone as well, yes step forward Sourav "Dada" Ganguly. When the majority of the other seniors wanted Moody in 2005 we know who plumped for Chappell. I say root the divisive element out and I hope you Mukul...write about it. Look forward to reading it in the Calcutta Telegraph.

Mukul: Thanks for echoing my thoughts so lucidly on your blog. This utter crap about all Oz's being straight talking and Indians cannot take straight talk crap is bewildering!
If players felt alienated from the coach then the coach has failed in his primary job - that is the plain and simple truth. Whether GC and the players were alienated is still not very clear and let us wait for the report to come out.

My problem is that all these journalists (even David Hopps) is suddenly saying that GC said a few thing in private on about the players and forgive me if I am wrong, that is something a coach should never ever do. And if he did that, all these theories of OZs are straightforward and Indians are people with twisted tongues and can't take straight talkers is just stupid.

Well, Mr Wright could be with the team for 5 years only because he dare not take the superstars head-on. In a way he is responsible for the current mess. If he had taken a sterner position dealing with the so-called superstar players, and made them understand they cannot continue on past glory alone, things would have been much better.

I agree with mukul regarding Chappell's SMSing capabilities, but i have to point out the fact that he was the only one to actually speak the truth. In a land where cricket is considered a religion and it's players god, someone has to bring these players back down to earth. Tendulkar hasn't performed in over 3 years (centuries against bangladesh, zimbabwe and timbuktoo do not count) and he has the audacity to say that the coach's comments hurt his confidence! I am sorry, i did not realise that after playing cricket for nearly 16 years, he still needs someone to hold his hand for him. Do i hear violins in the background? Somebody give him a pacifier already! I used to be a huge tendulkar fan but after hearing his comments i lost respect for him. All he wants is to become the captain of the team; as if the first time around was such a memorable experience for all of us. Honestly, i think we need more chappells in the indian cricket board. Get those greedy, slimy politicians out of cricket and also all those idiots we so love to call selectors. Mohinder Amarnath had called the selectors a bunch of jokers a long time ago. Sadly, it's still true.

Hi Mukul,

I have always admired your articles . However , this time i think you cannot be farther from the truth . Why should Chappell bear the blame for our debacle ? Harsh though he may be , what he said had the ring of truth most of the times. Answer me this , in the past ten years , apart from Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman , which Indian batsman has performed consistently against genuine fast bowling under the most unhelpful of conditions ? Steve Waugh in his autobiography disdainfully names us flat pitches maestros . He also mentions that he could see fear in the
eyes of our batsmen when Brett Lee was bowling to them (in Australia where we were blanked 3-0 with Sachin Tendulkar as captain).

Moreover , Sachin Tendulkar for all his greatness , has not performed well over the past few years. He has also been showing signs of insecurity.
First he lashes out at Sanjay Manjrekar for some pretty innocuous statements and now he uses the media to gain some sympathy . Why shouldn't Chappell question his commitment ? Even if he were upset , he should have answered with the bat
and not his mouth (as he was doing for the past many years.).

Coming to the case of The Royal Bengal Tiger , well he definitely gave the impression
of playing for himself and not the team.

Now coming to the media . Barely a week before the Bangladesh debacle , we were
told that this team would win us the world cup . The moment we were thrown out of the world cup , the media turned upon the very people they had hyped like a group of sharks scenting blood . Then why build up unrealistic expectations in the first place ?

Lastly coming to our cricket administrators . For all the money they have at their disposal , our pitches are sub-standard , our outfields not
conducive for fielding , our stadiums not upto international standards. What exactly is happening to all this money . It seems all these little men with big egos (comparable or bigger than our superstars if it were possible ) do is to make some comments to the media when the team is down .

Coming to the point that wright was better in handling our cricket team , i do not think this is correct . Wright clearly mentions in his book Indian Summers that some players after performing well in the initial stages started taking
things for granted and displayed a lack of commitment . when warned about being dropped from the team , they had merely snickered and walked away.Wright was lucky that he jumped ship when the rot was about to reach its pinnacle .

The thing is , Indian cricket is only about big money , bigger egos , even bigger mouths , huge hype and unbelievable noise . Take away all this and see what you find.

The funny brother Ian wrote an article as well about why Greg Chappel has resigned...

and that simply reflecty Australian attitude... if you are incompetent, blame it on others, attack and make other people defensive. In this case, brother Ian is simply grouping along attacking Indian cricket and players...

i don't get this. our team jelled extremely well against bermuda but didn't against the better teams. this says just one thing about the team- the lack of cricketing ability. sure tendulkar gave 17 years to cricket, but t he sgame compensated him more than adequately for his 'sacrifice'. dare i say that steve waugh also gave quite a few years to cricket but he was sacked afetr just one bad series. i don't remember him defending himself by resorting to sentimenatl blackmail. Ganguly was rightfully chucked, sanjay is right when he saysd that the coach is being made the scapegoat here. chappel tried to shake out the complacency in the indian camp and the seniors revolted against him . shameful!

Mukul, For someone who normally holds very balanced views, you have 'tendulkared'. Incidentally, that has been a term I am using for the last 2 years in managing my teams to get someone who gets too big for his boots to Earth.
The Good news was that we had a coach who could actually have got something done. We concentrate on his SMS's to journalists rather than contents of that SMS.
Let us start rebuilding Indian cricket with Greg's vision. Let us at least not loose that as well.
I am sorry that you have fallen for the sad story of a bunch of politicking non-performers.
Regards
Prahlad

"indians are like that"?????
come on.
it is one of the insidious remarks going around right now extolling virtues of australian frankness and denouncing indian courtesy.

So i guess the cricketing fraternity will be very happy when an aussie calls all sorts of names at a batsman because he is very frank and forthright in his views.

let's face it. Chappell's conduct was grossly unprofessional.
He seemed to me technologically challenged.
Time and again his confidential emails were "leaked" to public, his SMS went to journalists!.
that's not the way to conduct business.

and now it seems he is fleeing for his life. ever since Woolmer's murder and india's exit, he fears the worst and rightly so. no wonder he packed his bags soon after another public email.

If you are in the news for once, coincidence, twice mishap but when you pry on controversies then it is your character.Greg Chappell likes to be in the talk all the time. Commentary or writing can be far better for person like him.

Being a total desi at heart, I wonder sometimes, if its really a game that's being played these days or just a matter of 22 fools (24 including the umpires) scurrying around on the grassy fields and 22 million fools egging them on. True, its a game, and that's all it should be. We all know it was more the players' responsibility and maybe to a certain extent the coach's responsibility too. I disagree with Mukul's point that Greg should take the majority of the blame. If I was playing for the Indian team and someone told me that I was not performing/was slacking in my approach, I would push myself harder to disprove the observer's comment. Sadly in this case that doesn't seem to be the case. With the money pouring in from commercial ads and sponsorship deals, do you think that the fools like Tendulkar and et al. really care?????? If they did care, they should have allowed their bats to do the talking. I have read so many articles where they say that the performance on that particular day is what matters. How long have we been saying that? How long have these very journalists and media men kept saying the same thing over and over again. Indian cricket needs a complete upheaval. Will it happen? Going by the way things have gone so far, the 1 plus billion people can only keep dreaming, foregin coach or desi coach.

I speak as an Australian and I agree that the current trend in the media to generalise about the relative psychological properties of Indians and Australians is at best too simplistic and at worst smacks of lambent racism.

That said I think that this column under-values Chappell's worth as a coach, neatly failing to mention his success as coach of Australia A to cite but one example.

I do not claim to understand Chappell's motivations in supplying SMS messages, perhaps he feels at liberty to give his opinion to those who ask it, which would argue in favour of him being frank and straight-forward. Perhaps he feels that doing so is one way to get what he wants from players, perhaps that is manipulative, but manipulating players to get the best from them is the coach's job. From this distance I can't say for certain, and neither can the columnist but that doesn't stop him deciding on the negative interpretation.

You can have the best coach in the world, but ultimately whether or not a player performs is their responsibility. The public dissension from the senior players leaves me with the impression that they lacked the inclination to implement their coach's plan. Under those circumstances it seems ludicrous to blame the coach for the players' failure to produce results.

Hi Mukul,
I agree to some extent with your analysis. But your title seems somewhat provoked by racism and hatred toward India. You made the worst mistake by generalizing a few Indian's attitude as that of the entire population. I hope don't do the same mistake in future. I or some Indians can speak the same way about Sri Lankans but we won't because we are good people.
As far as Sanjay Manjrekar is concerned, I think it is better to ignore him. I find it funny when a bunch of loosers like Manjrekar, who can talk the talk but not walk the walk, come up with such big statements. Manjrekar should hold a mirror in front of him before he puts it in front of Indian team. He was hardly talented and his cricket was never entertaining. Suddenly, people like him can analyse the game better than the Indian team. He should have used his wisdom when needed.

I am no fan of ur work in the past. In fact hated a few articles that you have written on this blog, but here I must say you are SPOT ON.
The concept of breaking what was working moderately with a promise of creating something that would be work great is stupid.
GC broke team India. He probably had great intentions, but his management style sucked. You dont leak things abt the team to the media in any culture .. indian, autralian or american.
talking to the Media about the dressing room was what Ganguly was accusded of in Zim. How Chappel is any better.. I fail to understand.
I am happy that he is gone. But i think he has done irreparable damage to indian cricket.

oh yeah get a new coach 'n all the batsmen will score 100's 'n bowlers will take 4-5 wickets 'n fielders ...mmh...will stop any moving ball outside the inner circle.....like the good old days before chappell.WAKE UP PPL !! we 've some good batsmen average bowlers 'n maybe a flash of reasonable fielders 'n astrnomical figures of money 'n more politics than the local MLA's 'n power brokering that can shame the pimps !!!
hey face it man thatz indian cricket now .

((dont brag bout records,cos' records 'n performances r diffenent))

There s some real issues happening in ind and PAK cricket, and it has more to do with politics…
PAK cricket can b sorted quickly but Ind will have a problem..

Mafia ,money ,politics are all mixed up in Ind cricket….
First get rid of this South Indian Mafia campaigns and politics,,, it’s a breeding ground for many terror acts more than we know. and its growing in its illegal mafia acts and spreading to the good parts of India…..

Kick out these politics from South India.. Not the cricket coach.(well PAK did make that mistake)..
Then the both countries can play the best cricket,,,,,

The comment made by this guy HENRY IS SPOT ON..,,,,
” unfortunately it is always difficult to accept the fact. indian Cricket is in the hands of mafias, bookies, corporates, etc who are the deciding forces for the selection Indian team.
Despite their regular failures in the field our so
called fit for nothing senior palyers are in the
team on the mercy of the above said mafias. No one
can save the Indian team unless these senior players themselves retires (which is not possible)”

reg.

Probably the most important reason Chappel did not want an extension in his job is the Woolmer incident. No sane human being would risk his life coaching a team with a fanatical fan following.
He was lucky that the guy at Bhubaneshwar aiport just slapped him; what if he had shot him.
It was in Chappel's best interests that he quit. There is no point in trying to coach a bunch of players who think they are bigger than the game.

The main problem is the 'IDOL' status given to the team.
Corporates, pleeeeeeeeeeease stop signing up these losers as your brand ambassadors.
The players don't know the reality. Chappel did his best to show them the mirror & look at themselves.
While the rest of the cricket world - Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand , are making giant strides, we India (a nation of 1 Billion people) are going backwards.

Mukul I don't blame Chappell for this WC ouster. Dilip Doshi says Chappell's blame was 10%. About right.

The coach works around the selectors and captain. Chappell got heavily involved in selections and that compromised his coaching from the players POV. Did players benefit from the Aussie duo? Bowling (Manuf & Sreesanth) is better than before (Nehra, Balaji). The older players are painfully difficult to change. eg. look at the batting of Dravid (as an ODI opener), Sehwag (middle), Sachin (middle). This reflects VERY POORLY on these players. Essentially, they failed to adjust and were the cause of so many Indian collapses (regardless of the batting order). Ganguly is similar. You may call them the uncoachable.

Chappell's idea of going for younger players made perfect sense. Yuvraj, Dhoni and Pathan (batting) adjusted well and improved their performances. They help India to wins, unlike the older lot. Raina's unselfish attitude was excellent.

Bowling has been India's weakness. Chappell reminded Indians that good fielding (eg. by Raina/ Kaif) made a huge difference to bowler's success. Dravid said it bought them an extra wicket in ODIs. Nehra, Balaji, Zaheer and Kumble were poor fielders and average bowlers. Agarkar, Pathan, RP Singh, Sree and Harby were better bowlers and FIELDERS. Manuf reversed this tend. But Manuf is a fantastic bowler (ie. >> Nehra). Sree didn't progress in ODIs (=Balaji) and RP/ Pathan dropped off.

In other words, the older uncoachable players had returned. Zaheer atleast was a very good bowler. The dropping of Raina and Kaif further compromised fielding/ team ethics. The current team has too many uncoachable players - both test and ODIs. Chappell's idea is that Yuvraj is heading the seniors way and should be stopped. Many so-called experts say, "What can the coach teach the likes of Sachin, Dravid, Sehwag, Ganguly." That's perhaps the BIG problem.

Other so-called experts says, "Sachin knows when to quit! Leave Sachin alone!". Indeed it is not Chappell's business - that's selectors job right. However, selectors in India are used to doling out favours. Take Kumble - the worst selection for WC. P Ramchand -cricketarchive.com- says while profusely praising Kumble on his retirement: "Kumble had lost his sheen - Before the game against Bermuda in eight ODIs Kumble took just six wickets at almost 60 apiece and at an astronomical strike rate of 74. So his ODI career ended with a whimper." Unlike for senior batsmen, Powar was a FAR better alternative.

The CURRENT selectors made big mistakes. Apparently, one performance from Uthappa and Karthik was enough to make these selectors' heads spin. Wow!! Ganguly's 60+ in 120+ balls with pathetic running for his partner was match losing. Ditto failures from Sachin, Sehwag and Dravid. No team has been so poor at the start and put up a good score!! I can't blame Dhoni and lower order as they were under too much pressure. Remember, cricket is a team game. Batting from the four senior batsmen let India down. India's fielders and opening bowlers also are to blame.

What was really shocking (and unexpected) was that fear in their hearts had turned them to jelly (esp. Ganguly, Dravid, Sachin, Zaheer and Agarkar). Sehwag didn't stay long enough!! They had no business being at the WC.

Who the hell said that 'Indians are like that'????
Look around the world and you'll know what Indians are capable of.

For how long will we keep thinking that Indians have something wrong with their attitude or psychology?

There are some weaknesses in this cricket team, but, nobody spoke of them before WC'07. It suggests characterlessness of the highest order if columnists are writing non-sense like this taking advantage of hindsight bias.

One incident (or defeat) is not a reason good enough to insult or make judgemental remarks about a billion people.

chappel had some good coaching ways..
And he s got unmatched talent and knowledge..Ind had to utilize him as a coach.Players(some seniors..) wanted a coach to be controlled by them..,,
well in that case buy a school boy and pay him as coach.....

we will c chappels worth when he does wonders with a future team.and may b it will be PAK team for good.

and Ind will really c the effect then.!!!!!...

we have to kill these south indian politics,,other wise Ind cricket will b in a deep pit for ever

There have been few posts talking about how does it matter how the coach is, its the players that perform. Well cricket as a game completely depends upon the vibes amongst the team, which in our case was missing (due to Chappel's intrigue/bias etc.). Its said that he had leaked certain negative comments about Yuvraj's fitness to the media.. If this was his attitude then i really dont see how could he possibly bring the team together.. We as a nation are emotional people and so i assume our players would be.. and Greg/Dravid(gentlemen) cudnt use this strength of our players.. remember Ganguly swirling his shirt at Lords, Indian team's huddle in 2003 world cup ...

Other than being president of the United states. There are two other employment positions that amount to equal similar high scrutinise of their country when expectations are not met. They are the coach of the English football team and the other is the Indian cricket team where the blame is alays asserted to the coach(s) whether they are local or foreign people ar just not happy.

When India won their world cup against the mite of the West Indies it was done with grit and passion...no coach but the victory was a team effort against the odds of mite.

Pakistan...Australia...Sri Lanka have also one world cups on the same underdog / team spireit basis....no luck..they as well as India won as underdogs in being written off.

India needs to go back to its crickets roots of the Kapil Dev's, Gaviskars, Shastri etc. For them to get off the arm rest of the sports comentator couch to instill their cricket culture of the past to correct prima donna culture that the current players enjoy "WITH OUT SUCCESS"...or are they caught up in all the talk and not willing to walk such talk.

Good luck Indian Cricket....hire foreign coaches... then sack them because your great players within the team cannot accept a critical comment from the coach of a team looking for answers from a consistantly underperforming team containing national hero's of the past.

as i stated in a before thread;
sachin should draw back his comments and apologize...

Greg is one of the finest OZ's have produced and all OZ's will nod to that.that guy s got a strong personality and Indians were not used to it and his comments....,,

we shold take him back b 4 he goes to PAK(he surely can and why not he go there??)

WHAT SAY YOU?

Same old sub-continental mentality.never accept ur own mistakes.in cricket coach has no role what so ever to play.media has over hyped the role of coach in the game of cricket.its the players who are totally responsible for the win and loss of games.coach can't bat or bowel for u in the field.so don't put blame on Chappell.ask ur so called superstars why they didn't perform?Indian and Pakistani cricket players are among the richest cricket players in the world but there performances are pathetic.I feel they have got used to to earning easy money.make them hungry by cutting there incomes and tide there income with there performance and than the same guys will start delivering results.
use this receipe and u will see the results immedietly.I am giving this great receipe without charge.lol
its absolutly useless to waste energies and looking for excuses for the exit of these two teams from the world cup.
and finally to Indian fans,I think its time to stop worshiping Tendulkar for a while and he should be asked about the reason for his poor performance not only in this world cup but for the last 4-5 years.he seems like a shadow of his past and is dragging himself with the team just on the past glories.he is more of a burden on indian side rather than asset.either drop him like Ganguly and ask him to sort himself out or else quite this game and give chance to a promising youngster.

What are our "chumpions" repeat "chumpions" complaining about insecurity if they don't perform? Do they imply that even if they score zeroes, 5's and 10's in match after match they should have reserved places for a lifetime? No team is more pressured to perform or perish than the Australians. A couple of bad outings and the guy is out cooling his heels. And here we have our "idols" Sachin scoring pathetic sums of runs, and feeling hurt when they are criticised? For the record. In two years since Sept 2005 we have played top teams Australia and South Africa eleven times. Sachin has an average of less than 15 in those games. If he was an Australian player he would be on an unemployment payout, and not playing cricket

Great Players seldom make great coach. The game comes too easily to them. They cannot fathom the challenges faced by an average player. Which is why great coaches as Buchanan, Woolmer, Whatmore etc. had ordinary credentials as players. I recall Steve Waugh making a remark that India should have chosen "Moody" and how right he was.

I am surprised to see so many people suddenly finding faults in Greg Chappell’s methods. Where were you MR. Kesavan, and Wadekar, Srikkant and others, throughout Chappell’s 22 months tenure? None of you pointed out the problems with the ‘straight-talking’ Aussie’s style. Why did this not come to light before? Or is that you have a found a scapegoat for Team India’s debacle?

Chappell was a great player and, as captain, a darned good strategist. But great players and brilliant strategist do not necessarily make good coaches. After all the brilliant strategies have been devised and plans put in place, the final and possibly the most important ingredient is to motivate the team to go perform according to the script. There is one specific quality essential for a coach—ability to communicate. And that often requires diplomacy, understanding of his ward’s circumstances and nature (i.e., the cultural background of Indian players). If your players haven’t bought into your plan, then possibly you haven’t communicated (motivated) appropriately. May be that is where Chappell got undone. Straight talk and diplomacy are not mutually exclusive.

But why blame Chappell alone? The committee that interviewed and selected him bears a certain degree of responsibility as well. Clearly they failed to check up on Chappell’s credentials as a communicator, motivator and persuader. Ironically, Gavaskar, who was part of that committee is now being suggested as a possible candidate for Greg’s replacement. It has been written often that as the captain, Gavaskar was aloof and not very communicative with his team. Coach selection committee beware! Before you select the next coach, interview the teams he has coached to find out how he communicates. Step up to the plate Kapil Dev.

Then there are of course situation when no amount of communication will get the other guy to perform because there is little accountability. Typically, those players who have ‘secured’ their place in the team are often the most autonomous. The newcomers are far too insecure to ignore instructions. The mirror Chappell held shows that certain seniors need a chick in their behinds, Tendulkar included. Fans and players on Tendulkar bandwagon are all arguing what a great batsman he has been. Why is no one talking in the present tense? ‘Perform or perish’ has to be the mantra for any team that dreams of dislodging Australia from the top spot.

Finally, BCCI should be run like a corporation with a CEO and the players should be “employees”. They should be fired if they don’t deliver according to the “job description”. Otherwise we fans are being gypped while the advertisers, players and BCCI are all filling their coffers. We are the ones who are paying them.

Mukul, great article. We Indians tend to follow what others have done for their success and expect the same success for ourselves. Nothing wrong in that but unfortunately it does not always work. Sometimes success only come when one does something different (a calculated risk).

Australians by nature are very competitive folks. Winning is a part of their culture. There was a program called Discovery Atlas in which Australia was profiled. Believe it or not one of the favorite competitions they indulged in their pubs was fighting a certain variety of toads!!!!wow.The point is Australians compete for pleasure.

Whereas Indians believe (or are taught from childhood) more in the fact that "participation is more important than winning". Thats the reason, majority of our players are submissive in nature.

I strongly believe the Indian team was the strongest team which India could have sent (may not be the strongest team in the world). But, where we lacked was the mental strength. The ability to lift ourselves when we are down. Being a developing country, majority of our upbringing makes us fear-driven and not reward-driven. I think thats where we lack behind.

We have always been a culture where we needed a super human like Gandhi to lift us up when we are down and out. We thought Greg was the man to save our cricket and show it some direction. But results have shown that, it was a mess. Greg was a failure in his mission to ensure India does well in the world cup (his target). A coach has to be a strong leader and a great communicator. But someone who despises more than half the team unfortunately is neither.

Yes, Greg did point out the problem areas, but did not implement solutions.Some might say he was not allowed to implement. Well the news is that nothing in life is easy, one has to adapt and succeed. He was more like the Management consultant when he should have been the CEO. I am also glad hes gone.

Greg leaving, is a good first step. The next step would be to analyze Greg's findings and move forward using methods which compliment Indian way of thinking.

The article is biased and one sided written with a preconceived notion that Chappell is bad for Indian cricket...Truth hurts and thats what Indians hate to digest...Only Chappell had the guts to drop a larger than life paper superstar ganguly from the team when he was not performing..Back in 2005 ganguly's form was awful and he was in the team resting on past laurels..If Chappell was given a free reign he would have had the other paper tiger Endulkar dropped a yr back when he was hanging on the team only his stature and not on his form...As far as harbhajan was concerned he never had talent and he was in the team banking on one perforamce against Australia 6 yrs back. Agarkar is another inconsistent performer who is in the team becoz of his mumbai roots...Dhoni and yuvraj have an attitude ..They think they are superstars .They have an habit of playing to cement their place in the team and not to win matches...
sachin's record in recent times--

Sachin Tendulkar since Sept 2005 against Australia and SA in one day matches
Innings : 11
Runs : 155
Average : 14.09
100s/50s : 0/1

No other team in the world would pick him on the above performance but for India he is "Master Blaster". BTW what has be blasted recently ?
greg questions his attitude and this kiddo goes bombastic...wah re wah...So nobody should question this lamb when he is not performing...It happens only in india...greg did the right thing to resign.he is too good to coach a team of jokers..
I might sound harsh...but this is the truth.

Can any body from India and Pakistan quote me one single improvement which their foreign coaches brought to their respective teams,both the nations were suffering from FCS (foreign coach syndrome)
I thought the foreign coaches were brought in for technology and strategy and all that BS, but all we got from these coaches after them making things worse was a straight talk.
So here is straight talk from me "KHAS CUM JAHAN PAK". For godsake this Indian team was the finalist in last world cup,and the Pakistan Team was consistently ranked 2nd or 3rd in ICC rankings
before the world cup these coaches have to take some responsibility.
However the selectors also have to share the blame as they failed to show the door to some of the old explayers and induct New Talent,as far as the players are concerned I have never seen Indian and Pakistani team play so miserably it seemed every body was playing for himself and not for the team,they were too defensive i dont know how much the coaches were to be blamed for that but werent they suppose to make them aggresive and professional.It seemed that the teams were under a spell at times the players looked clueless was it the pressure of the world cup or lack of confidence or skill but whatever it was the responsibility has to be shared by everyone the coaches first then the selectors and then the players.
Anyhow one part of the disease is taken care of
now we need to get rid of some holy cows in the teams,and change our domestic cricket structures.
So much for technology back to basics.

While I do find it a bit strange that Chappell chose to send sms messages to journalists on a whim, that is about the only fault one can really find with him. While your article is correct about how the team fared under the Wright regime, perhaps one needs to look at what Chappell was really trying to set right. Our team has always been a "Team of Champions" and as another reader has put it - a "Champion Team" will always beat a "Team of Champions". Unfortunately, our problem has always been that we play first for ourselves, and then and only then - for the team. Chappell did well to see through and set right the main culprit of degenerative effect of the self-serving Ganguly regime - Ganguly himself. Thereafter he tried to instill the concept of "playing for the team" into our players. I think this worked well for a while - after all we did achieve a world record of the most number of successful run chases in history.

The problem unfortunately is that the concept of playing for oneself is instilled into the Indian player's psyche at a very young age, and it took not very long for that ingrained characteristic to resurface. And this process spiralled out of control with the return of Ganguly, who brought with him the return of factions within the team. It is unfortunate that we have teams such as Kenya, Namibia, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in the ODI arena, for if we didn't, Ganguly's lack of runs against other oppositions would take care of him for good (and lets not have someone reminding me of the one odd innings).

Now we have Tendulkar - the ultimate team man once upon a time, giving press statements that can only be detrimental to the team's morale. And this was not the first occasion - remember the big deal that was made out of Dravid declaring on him at 194* .... why did we need a press conference then? Will our cricket always be about the individual? Again unfortunately, I am sure there will those in the public who will defend Tendulkar blindly, even