The Punch and Judy show is a puppet play that's been a traditional entertainment in English seaside towns since the seventeenth century. It features a hunchbacked brute called Punch who amuses his audience of little children by beating his wife Judy with a stick, trying to murder their baby and generally behaving in a grotesquely criminal fashion. The puppet master is called the Professor.

In Chappell's new rendering of the show, Punch represents the BCCI, racist Indian fans and scheming Indian players. Judy represents the nurturing Chappell, and the Baby is Indian cricket. Judy does everything she can to raise the baby right but Punch doesn't let her. He hits everyone with his stick and his audience instead of being horrified is amused, in keeping with the child-like, amoral nature of oriental spectators.

This would be an amusing play but Chappell keeps changing the script. A day after the newspapers filed stories on Chappell's racist ordeal, the BCCI rubbished the reports, saying that it had done everything necessary to upgrade Chappell's security and categorically denying Chappell's claim that he had been the victim of a racist assault. You would expect the Board to say that, only in this case, Chappell seemed to agree.

"It's old news," he told the Indian television channel CNN-IBN. "It was a very emotional time when I made these remarks. It's a long way back and I'd like to talk about other things now."

This is more than a little odd. Chappell seemed happy enough to let the documentary be completed without comment or correction and a charge of assault aggravated by racism is a serious one. The documentary is called 'Guru Greg' and gives us Chappell's take on his time in India. The 'racist' assault happened in January so Chappell's had plenty of time to ask its producers to work in any second thoughts he had into the narrative of the film. So why would he let the allegation of racism stand in the film only to pass it off as an emotional outburst later?

The answer as supplied by Chappell himself, seems to have to do with business. Chappell has just accepted a three year contract with the Rajasthan cricket board to take charge of the state's cricket academy. So he wants to move on. It's hard to know what to make of this. Is Chappell asking us to accept that he had a hissy fit then and cried 'racism' when it wasn't? Or is he saying that it was racism and what he said in the film stands, but his current contractual commitments make it inconvenient for him to repeat the charge, given that Lalit Modi of the Rajasthan cricket board is also a grandee in the BCCI? Neither explanation flatters Chappell. The first makes him seem neurotic, the second suggests a cynic playing two different markets with alternative versions of the 'truth'.

Or maybe Chappell doesn't know what he means. Perhaps his Punch and Judy show, like the traditional seaside entertainment, is meant to play as farce. And perhaps Greg isn't Judy. Perhaps he's Punch, flailing about with his stick not because there's a reason but because that's what he does.

Maybe its that time of the year when the ex-coaches cry about their ordeals during their tenure.

Brilliant Mukul! Chappell is a buisnessman first and a sportsman later. This is an obscene truth but truth however ghastly remains true . This man is out to milk the Indian Cricket establishment and gets away by talking rubbish. I wonder why the BCCI with all the money in their coffers does not think of a law suit against this geriatric old crank ? Chappell should be shown the door by the Rajasthan cricket board,not due to his comments but due to the perils of keeping a lunatic in the establishment.

To sum up, the story so far: 1. Greg Chappell was handed a team that were contenders for the 2007 World Cup. 2. He got into a row with the Captain and ensured his head rolled. 3. He emotionally blackmailed and mentally disintegrated the entire team he was put in charge of. 4. Failed miserably in achieving his brief: to win the World Cup. 5. Whined out of his responsibilities.Now he claims to be a victim of racial abuse???!!! It is clear he is an instrument of the Australian policy of mental disintegration of opponents. He is their mole in India. He has destroyed our cricket team and now gotten into slandering our country??? How logical is all this?Send him packing... and never let another Australian anywhere near our cricket team.

We all know who he is, please do not print his picture. Just the first name is enough to evoke revulsion.

Good article. Why dont people realise that Greg Chappell was a grand failure as a coach and a trouble brewer as well? What good can he be for a state cricket board? He is out to make himself as much money as possible. He is a mercenary like the Blackwater people in the US. He doesn't care how much harm he is doing.

This is outrageous. I just cannot believe that a State Cricket Association will let this man on its premise. Are there no coaches left anywhere. He well established by his record that he was an utter failure as a Coach. Why would anyone go near a failure? Why?

Its getting a bit boring to hear about Mr. Chappell's woes while he was the Coach of the Indian team. He seems to fault everything Indian but insists on picking up a job with Rajastan...if these are not double standards and hypocrisy then what is! Its about time the Indian media ignored this man completely as cricket lovers have had just about enough of him.

I am no fan of Greg Chappell's and I do not know what to make of his claims. He certainly cares more for himself and his wallet than anyone else.

However, this incident isn't much different to the treatment Australians have received over many years, whereby any negative incident is automatically decried as racism by the sub continent. The message by Jaidev Gaitonde sums it up ... if he is offended by Chappell supposedly slandering his country, how do you think Australians feel about the continuous stream of anti-Australian propaganda that emanates from the mouths of people like Gavaskar and Ranatunga?

The shoe is on the other foot, and I hope now many people on the sub contintent can understand how hurtful and offensive frivolous racism claims can be.

Your writings represent all that is so odious about Indian cricket journalist : a lack of perspective,humour and balance. Ditto many of the readers of such material.

Excellent Mukul. Absolute top drawer writing. I wonder what those Bangalore corporates would be thinking now, who got Chappell (during his 2 year stay) to give discourses/talks/lectures on management! Probably, Mr. Sridhar Jayanath here was one of those sitting in the audience soaking in his words of wisdom!!!

Spot on again Mukul!! Kudos!!

Why waste time on what the Great Failed White Hope of Indian cricket has to say ? There is no doubt that Indians are not role models of sensitive behaviour when it comes to racism, but to suggest that this was a racist attack is quite amusing. By the same token, was the finger that Greg Chappell displayed at Calcutta, an example of racist behaviour and not sheer pique ? For people who have expressed other opinions on the characteristics of Indian journos and readers, two points to ponder :

- is it a coincidence that such stories are coming out now, just before the visit by India, and is perhaps a part of the usual Aussie media campaign to put pressure on any visiting team

- the report also talked of Tendulkar's selfishness and also on the "indian / oriental" cultural characteristic that apparently Ganguly displayed in thinking that Greg would be in his debt for Ganguly supporting him as a coach.

After such broad strokes on Indian culture and cricket with hues of orientalism, should he give up his role as a coach in the Rajasthan Academy and try for a professorial post in cross cultural communications in an Indian university ? At least Mukul would have some competition then in a reverse trend of a cricketer becoming an academic. Mukul : connect Greg to Ashis Nandy. That would be best and we can let him rest in peace.

Now, now, why is it that sub-continent cries foul, when chappell brings up the issue of racism? After all, sub -continent players like gavaskar, ranatunga are quick to call any match refree or umpiring decision against the sub-continent teams as racist. Why dont the sub-continent fans cry foul even than? The answer is clear : racism is an issue which can only be subjected on the sub-continent population and not the other way around. And this holier than thou attitude is very clear in Mr. Kesavan's supposedly "sattirical" article as well. And its surprising, considering certain countries in the sub-continent have been practising racism under the garb of "casteism" for thousands of years and still try to sweep the issue under the carpet by saying "if its a westerner who cries foul, then its crap", even though they are masters of the art of practising instutionalised racism. And by the way after 2003, India were constantly loosing cricket matches and in the last year of Mr. wright's tenure thay hardly won anything...and was it not the indian board who selected chappell as the coach of the indian team...so why cry, when poor attitude and fitness of the players resulted in india getting knocked out of the 2007 WC in the west indies. And if people know hoe to look at numbers, they would see that under chappell India had a better win %age compared to the ganguly and wright era.

There comes a time when sometimes as an audience, you get attuned with the performer’s wavelength. The same happened with me, when I was reading your article. I think this should down as one of your best written articles. I truly enjoyed reading it. Truly marvelous.

About the subject, well here’s what I think:

Imagine the following:

The World Cup Vision: The Experience of Coaching India
By Greg Chappel

Foot note: Former India Coach reveals everything.

We heard it Mr.Chappel, and so did the publishers around the globe. Soon someone will be knocking your door with a blank cheque for the book's right. John Wright did it, what is stopping you?

Mukul should we have a term in the coach's contract wherein they are refrained from writing a book, giving inflammatory interviews or casting themselves in documentaries regarding the team they once coached? Is BCCI reading this?

After reading this. my respect for Duncan Fletcher has rocketed upwards. He stuck to his guns, if he was bitter, he continued to be bitter about it while blogosphere debated the reasons for it. He hit out fiercely at the cricketers and the system, got his fair share of criticism. At least he turned a sorry bunch of no hopers into an Australia beating unit (what is it with Zimbabweans beating Australia these days?).

Chappell, on the other hand,prefers to bite the hand that feeds him, and then lick it when he feels more food coming his way.

Its quite funny to hear the national of a country that had an official white's only policy for the better part of their history, who have had all of one aboriginal representative in their national team in 140 years of existence, complain about racism after being assaulted by an Indian. Doesn't the fact that he was offered the job of India coach over Indian candidates make him the beneficiary of the same kind of racism? Or is Chappell talking about some Orwellian kind of racism there are some good nd bad kinds of racism?

Great stuff Mukul!! And also excellent comments from the readers. We, meaning Lalit Modi and the RCA should be wary of dealing with Chappell. Sure he may have things to offer for Indian cricket, but keep him on a tight rein, like the bcci are doing with loose canons like our own Vengsarkar. And at any sign of trouble terminate his contract. Chapell's statement that he was subject to violence due to racism, is itself a racist remark. Anyway I dont buy into this racism crap anyway. In cricket the aggro is against the other team, to pressure them or psyche them to get an advantage on the field. The Symonds issue was also because he was doing so well, and not many Indians knew he was of West Indian origin.

Typical insular Indian cricketing racism. While Indian cricket, in its’ crowds, nurtures the vilest racist scum on earth, they are all too quick to shriek racism the minute anyone looks askance at them. Shame! And, to the poster above who accused Chapple of being a businessman first and a cricketer second - who more than Indian cricket has sold the game out for the sake of a few lousy bucks?

This is the mentality which will forever keep India in cricket's second division.

Greg was the biggest mistake of Indian cricket history. He showed how a reasonably good team can be destroyed. How many so called new players were not there in the WC07 team and are in the current team? Not many really. But the current team is doing fine. That is because they are free from playing under Greg. Guru Greg created psychological complications in his own mind, remained stubborn and aloof and when WC disaster happened he blamed that his ideas were not implemented. The fact is that the attacker on Greg was personally motivated and not racially (other wise he could have attacked one of the white mens in the support stuff).
I earlier used to think he could be useful in training 15 yeard olds, but now I feel he could be a disaster for them as well. Guru Greg like Muni Durvasha (people aware of Indian mythology will understand the comparison) cann't do anything good. They can only turn gold to coal and not the other way round. God save Indian cricket from the curse called "Guru Greg".

Forget all the rhetoric.I pose a simple question.Simply because an enraged (and obviously mentally unbalanced) fan assaulted Chappell and not an Indian player,what makes it a racial attack? Im not in anyway condoning the attack or the attacker.What if the Indian coach at the time had been a local boy? Have Indian players not had to face the moronic fan treatment meted out to them following world cup defeats?The garlands of slippers,effigy burning and stone throwing? How does a violent act,simply because it was perpetrated against Chappell,however deplorable it might have been,qualify as racist? If anything needs to be examined here its the thoroughly ridiculous attitude of a section of india's cricket fans to victory and defeat.

The article made interesting reading. The comments, equally so.
Some facts:
1. The vast majority of Indian fans are not racist...neither are the Australians.
2. The Indian Cricket Board is nowhere near as efficient and effective as the Australian Cricket Board.
3. The success of the Indian Cricket Team is a not because of the system that supports it but in spite of it.
4. It is the system that brought in Mr. Greg Chappel to assist our team. The results achieved are well documented.
5. The Indian public at large respects the verbal capability and thought process of Mr. Greg Chappel. We have even named an item of footwear in his honour. We call it the "FLIP FLOP".

Dravid - a third rate politician....can you please substantiate? Why do you want to drag Dravid into this one? It was Greg and Saurav who played politics; and poor Dravid was never allowed to settle in as captain. If he was a politician, he would not have persisted with both Sehwag and Sachin when they had their worst runs in cricket. Even when Kaif was doing very badly, Dravid wanted Kaif on the Windies tour. In fact, my surmise is that Dravid did not play politics, hence he has been victimized by the system - be it Greg, Saurav, the selectors, BCCI and now potentially Dhoni...

I am a great admirer of Greg as a player.I was pretty sure that he was going to instill aussie arrogance & mental toughness into indian cricket.Instead players morale were shatterd under his tenure.Failure in WC and making headlines for wrong reasons should have made BCCI think before they offered an extension in his contract.I still couldnt understand why he offered an extension at all.
On the other hand if he feels indian fans are racist who should he still stick around instead of leaving.

First the attacker was deranged and he could have a myraid of loony reasons for attacking Chappell, including, but highly unlikely, racism. Second Chappell himself comes off as a detestable person, and so attacks on him could entirely be deemed individual in nature unrelated to race. And after this incident his security was beefed up, and the attacker reprimanded, so what in Vishnu's name is he complaining about? Cover up??? What cover up, everybody knows of this incident, it was well highlighted in the media, including Chappell's own, the Australian media. Chappell, like most other Australians, seem to live in an imaginary world where any Australian visitor to India is facing palpable risk to his life and limbs. Laughable!

First of all I find a new definition of this English word Raccist. What I known before was "Discriminatory especially on the basis of race or religion". But now I know that, if a person of different race attacked or said something offendable to another person of another race for any reason(not necessary related to his race), will be termed as Racist.
I don't know why Mr. Lalit Modi brings back Greg to India again. It seems Lait modi wants a true Businessman and politician, rather a cricketer, who have some respect for Indian values.

What can you expect from a person who has no sense of what he is speaking. Chappell may have been a very good batsman in his heydays. But he is just that -- a very good batsman. He comes out as a person who has got a one track mind. An olden day martinet cloaked in the garb of a cricketing guru. What he needs to know is that one man's moment of madness cannot be equated with racism.May better sense prevail on the likes of Chappell.

Maybe the reason India didn't win the world cup is that they don't have enough good players. This foolishness about coaches making the difference to international teams is out of control. Indian cricket fans and commentators would be better served concentrating on the players' performances. A couple of decent bowlers wouldn't go astray if they want to win abroad. In short, look ahead not back and stop picking players on their reputation rather than what they can do in the future.

It is clear from the tone of the article and majority of responses that Indians have deep seated problems with Chappell in particular and Australians in general. Clearly racism exists on a wide scale level, perhaps even more so than in Australia, both towards westerners and also internally (caste system). The BCCI coverup of the Symonds affair clearly demonstrates the inheresnt racism within even that organisation. Australia should boycott India

When Greg Chappell became the coach of the Indian team, he brought a vision with him. That vision involved creating a team of youngsters; players who were eager to learn and experiment; players uncluttered with their own importance; fit and athletic players who ran well and fielded better; players who played for each other rather than for themselves; players that were multi-dimensional. That was what would win them the World Cup, he said, and people sneered at his ignorance of preferring the Rainas and Sreesanths to the Gangulys and Zaheers.

Worse still, he lost no time in taking out the Gangulys and the Zaheers from the team equation itself. He found himself none too impressed with the Tendulkars. He tried to persuade the nation to accept his vision; a nation that was more obsessed with whether Tendulkar got his 40th ton than whether or not India won its next match; a nation that wanted their 'Dada' to be in the team even if every bowler, including domestic ones, were queuing up to take a shot at him. Simply put, the nation thought Indian cricket had been handed over to wrong - even dangerous - hands.

The usual Indian politics followed that has kept our nation back for so long in cricket and other fields, and India went into the World Cup of 2007 with what the nation wanted, rather than what the man hired to chalk out the World Cup strategy wanted. The result was a first-round exit.

Some six months later, a new team is formed for what is the latest form of cricket - a slam-bang format known as Twenty20. The big 3 decide (???) to make themselves unavailable for the format, the team gets a huge dose of unknown, untested "fresh blood" cricketers; multi-dimensional, fit and athletic (most of them), who run well and field better, non-celebrities (most of them), a team eager to prove themselves, led by another of those younger breed of players uncluttered with his own importance. The result - India wins the Twenty20 World Cup, beating teams they looked nowhere near matching six months ago.

It is not about winning the Twenty20 cup. It is about the attitude, the fearlessness, the team work, the work ethic that Chappell spoke about, which seemed to be in abundance in the Twenty20 winning team.

Could this team have won the 50-50 World Cup, 2007? Maybe, maybe not! Even this team could have lost in any of those tightly contested matches against England, Australia, South Africa and Pakistan in the just-concluded Twenty20 cup. It is not about that! It is the nation showering accolades on the players who fit the vision Chappell had for Indian cricket, except that when Chappell was here, the same nation was busy putting obstacles everywhere. Our egos wouldn't let a white man win against our heroes, our Gangulys and our Tendulkars; when they "opted" out themselves, it was ok.

Chappell would be having a hearty laugh.

Great stuff! Let's have more of the same when it comes to English and Australian cricketers, coaches and mediamen who sing one tune in India and another, quite different one back home when they write books or give interviews, spicing it all up to please their superior white audiences. As for Greg Chappell, he seems to have lost it entirely. Here's a coach whom all India supported when he made all those daring moves to resuscitate Indian cricket, but has gradually managed to tie himself in knots and lose all the respect he earned.

Excellent! Greg Chappell, the plain trith of the matter is likes to be in the news. So this current issue, if you could call it that. After having taken Indian cricket to the depths, he is back in India, the bad racist country, to make a living. Poor guy, can't find a job anywhere. I hope the powers that be in the Rajasthan Cricket Assn. realise this man can do more harm than good before its too late.

It is strange that the people screaming racism loudest these days are the australians. First Hair, his "legal case" was not strong enough to survive the courts. Then Chapell who called a deranged attack a racist attack. Aussies seem to be in me too mode when it comes to screaming racism at the subcontinent. Attack is the best form of defense for the Aussies [no matter how laughable]. Oh Yes and they also seem to be experts in making one line statements about the caste system in India. In context I think some Aussies can spin a story in whatever way they like about India, but the truth only sticks out and makes these individuals appear whingey and immature.

Greg Chappell went to India with new ideas, and a new way to apporach the game. He was not supported at all by the BCCI and consequently, the Indian team suffered. His idea of culling some of the older players was ignored and the requests for young blood were also completely. ignored. The results stand for themselves, India had a horrific World Cup and seemed to make no progress during Chappell´s tenure. The only people to blame are the ridiculous BCCI and of course, the players. Unless of course you´re Indian and then, it´s all Mr. Chappell´s fault. Wake up India!!

There seem to be a design in everything Australians do-their media,players, administrators and politicians. Remember Symonds made comments that he was racially abused. This came immediately after he abused quite a lot of our players. In India cricket is like religion. Crowds will not take kindly if they abuse and use faul language to our cricketers. Immediately media back home picked on the story about racial abuse. Why administrators and media or politicians do not talk about Aussie players who are abusive and conveniently find fault with opposition all the time. The point Sunil Gavasker has been making for a long time is never picked up by poor Indian media. Greg Chappel is no different. They are all working together to maintain Australian team at the top -by good training, media support and hinding their abusive behaviours.

Do you find yourself wondering why no Indian wants to coach the national team? Or why they had to ask 3 or 4 guys to be captain before they found someone to take the job? It's because the Indian public want scapegoats when their team doesn't perform. 9 times out of 10 it's the coach or captain who have their effigy burnt. You've got 2 or 3 great batsmen (Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman), 1 great bowler (Kumble) & a pretty good keeper (Dhoni)....but your overall team is poor and, from an outsiders perspective, your players lack heart & committment. The best thing that ever happened to Ganguly was being dropped. He needed a kick up the backside. Who cares what Greg Chappell says about getting punched? I find it strange that so many of the people responding to this article draw a line between Greg Chappell and "all australians". Stop being so childish. Shut up and support your team. You never saw an Australian supporter burning an effigy of Ricky Ponting when Australia lost the Ashes in 2005. We'd rather get behind our team and urge them to display the class we know they possess, next time around. Of course, I'm Australian, so just by having an opinion I must be racist in the eyes of the majority of people who have responded to this article so far. See if I care, wallow in self-pity....we'll settle for watching our team win everything.

Mukul, you are so wrong. Of course Greg was punched because he was the only white guy. He has every right to point out that it was sordid cover up by insular odious BCCI.
Let's not cover the racist undertones of India. When India did not have economic power, Indians could play the race card and it is well institutionalized. Now that roles are reversed, others are coming to India for jobs (like Gandhi did century ago and Greg is doing now) and others have every right to point out the Indian racism.
Maybe Australia needs to hail Greg as hero who was victim of the racism and pushed the envelop of equality: Just as Indian are taught so much stuff in the High-school (remember Gandhi being kicked off the train)

But of course the deformed, paralytic, odious BCCI is busy making money for talentless administrators, who cares about anything else.

Isn't it wonderful to see 'selfish' Tendulkar winning matches for India again? Strange coincidence that this was after Chappell left? Or that Team India's spirit was suddenly rekindled after his departure such that they were able to win the T20 WC with the same 'youth' that Chappell had failed to convert into match winners.

The fact is, since Chappell has left, the team appears more relaxed, confident of their direction with a new fearless leader and willing to give it their all.

And whoever said India is in 'the second division of cricket' is obviously a jealous Englishman. The English love their Test cricket, and losing 1-0 just isn't palatable.

I am so amused at some of the Aussie opinions . "Australia must boycott India". Ha Ha ha...Need I point out anything more. Yes, I am surely annoyed with our so called intelligent sports media persons. Have we forgotten what distorted view of things they prefered to furnish when it was so clear that Chappel was taking the team to the gutters. BCCI were fooled . But the saddest thing that happened was that Dravid was taken for a real ride. He spoke about processes and methods . Ha Ha Ha. Guru Greg's teachings. BCCI certainly deserved what they received at the end of it all. Fools dont deserve better. Cover Up? What the hell! Have we forgotten that the BCCI covered up Chappel's insolent behavior in Kolkata when he gestured with his finger. This man ,certainly has selective memory. Well! he is surely without any principles ..to say the least. God help Rajasthan Cricket association.

It isn't about the "vision" that Greg brought, according to Manokaran, but about the same racial dirt that he threw all around and the arrogance that he now puts on India. Greg is such a fool. He doesn't know that in India we do not use the term 'Race', the whites are so fond of. We do become unruly and adapt any and every right and wrong means to get the result, but I am sorry, Greg did not take the hint as he became more and more vindictive. He saw the writing on the wall but made sure that Indian Cricket sunk to its lowest. There was no where to go from there but up. Those who are opposed to The Three, should look at the Australian team and the life span there. However, someone has to write for Greg, but why? Lalit Modi's tribute was enough, by hiring Greg.
No Mat, Australians, Canadians, English, Americans do not burn effigies, they just simply sledge or shoot people outside the pavilions. Its less noticeable.

We Indians measure success only by looking at the performance of Indian team during world cup.Had Sachin played the 2007 world cup like the way he did in world cup 2003, India would have probably entered the finals. Then people would not have found any fault in Dravids captaincy or Greg Chappels coaching methods. Conversely if Sachin played 2003 world cup like the way he did in 2007, definitely India's would not have made second round.
Remember India won 17 one days chasing. Won first away test series in West Indies incidentally first series win against a major side in 20 years. Won first test match in South Africa after 15 years.
All these record happened in 2 years under Chappel, during this time senior players were not burden to the team, But once senior players became burden (Sachin, Sehwag, Kaif, Harbhajan). Chappell could not remove them nor keep them, that why India lost. Thats why we hate Chappell.

I fail to understand how Chappell decided that it was racist behaviour. Mukul makes the point beautifully when he says - " Right. Chappell was the only white man there. His assaulter was black. What other conclusion is possible?" The Indian team not doing well was the obvious cause, and a peeved/disgruntled fan therefore took it out on the man running the show - thats the explanations! I do not condone in any way the actual act of gitting Chappell, and I hope the perpetrator was suitably punished. But the REASON for doing it, just because the coach was of a different race than the Indian players and everyone around, cannot be termed racist. Was Greg's finger-display incident from the team bus also racist - don't know, but probably not again; could just have been an expression of anger at something someone said. Again, the act itself is not to be condoned.

Gavaskar and Ranatunga, as far as I have seen, have not made demeaning comments based on the white/Australian race - rather their comments have always been about the ACTIONS of those teams/ countries - this should NOT be portrayed as racist - there is a big difference. What was racist was Dean Jones calling Hashim Amla a "terrorist" on air when he had just taken a catch (no harmful or spiteful ACTION on Amla's part, but his race prompted the coomment). The media, as well as us readers should think and comment more thoughtfully and responsibly about these things.

Enough has been written about Greg, and rightfully he deserves no more attention than what has been wastefully loaded on him so far.
My response goes to those few (westerners?) who have have viewed the pour of outrage against Greg and somewhat against Australians as general as vindication of 'racism' in India fuelled by the Andrew Symonds story. It is true that "racism" exists in an obnoxius tinge. However, the tinge is more converse and is in fact a "preconceived" admiration rather than a generic loathe. Those who comment should follow Greg's journey and welcome in India. However he prefered to be "an Australian superhero who saw everything wrong in India and was here to 'teach' the right way of doing things". He was openly disrespectful of local cutlure. And somehow through all this loathe, he was still expected to be admired. He would not just damn Indian systems, he would disgrace them- WITH BCCI COVERING UP HIS ACTS! If this sounds 'racism' , then true- Indians are racist. Because we are admire races and culture other than our own. I would ask these comment makers like Dave if they would appreciate a Gavaskar ridiculing the makes of Western culture.
The goon who attacked Chappell was probably a lunatic, no more. But to call it racism has to stem from the fact that the attack was motivated by skin color. Why was John Gloster or other white members spared then?

But yes, what happened with Symonds was probably wrong, but not again- racism. Racsim is what Greg did- ridicule a culture. RAcism is when people show up in stadium wearing nappies to ridicule Gandhiji.

Oh yeah , India is a second "class" cricketing nation, now isnt that a classic example of the "class" notion? So is the moral of the story - -"not holier than Dave"?

Well put.Greg Chappel,wnts media attention and money.He knows where he stands in downunder.He can do it in India where we are not objective.Greg is taking advatage of our ignorence.

“Fear gives rise to anger, anger to hatred and hatred leads to misery”. You don’t need to be a Jedi to realise this. So what gives rise to fear – “the naked challenge”! (doesn’t include what you are thinking).When someone (Symonds, Sreesanth) steps up and says that, he wants to defeat the other person or team, then that evokes fear in hearts of the opposition and their supporters.

Symonds and his sadistic agenda: Symonds was no El Cid. He did not heroically challenge the champion of the other team, like the real Campeadors Warne and McGrath did to Sachin, rather he said that he wanted to hear the dreadful silence of the Indian fans in the stadium, and then he will know that his team is winning – sadistic to the core isn’t it. He wasn’t like Akram and S.Waugh who both embraced the Indian fans as their own and won them over (easy and simple); rather he threatened their gods – blasphemous. We all know what happened next. He was treated like a devil should be.

Sreesanth is different. Even without issuing the challenge, he evokes fear in the hearts of the opposition. He is more like Clubber Lang of Rocky III fame. More than hitting him all over the park, the batsmen are scared to face the insulting send-offs. Especially the Aussies, who think of themselves as the alpha-males in cricket, feared that their virility and performance (pun intended) is threatened because of him. They were more than glad to being subjected to the Sachin’s and Lara’s-clobbering-and the gentleman handshakes all these years. This is new!

You name the most hated players, and you can just trace some aggressive comments on the other teams at one point or other in their careers. Here’s the list (understand that fear is equally proportional to the anger shown by opposing fans and players) – Pietersen, (not Vaughan or Flintoff), Smith, (not the gentle Kallis), Sreesanth (read comments in youtube by Pakistani fans…man they are scared to the bone) Ganguly, (not the decent Dravid), Shoaib, The entire Australian team barring a few like Lee and Hussey. Nobody hated Sanath or Afridi. The hated ones are not the most devastating performers who feature in everybody’s top 10 lists; rather they are the aggressive ones. The ones who challenge!

Now convert this entire logic to the coaches. Here the ones most hated are – the ones who speak “the naked truth”. We lost a lot of matches under Wright. But we don’t hate him, we love him. But we hate Chappell, reason - he spoke the truth. “Ganguly should go” he demanded. That’s all, and the fans showed him hell. “Sachin should work harder” he reminded – the media blasted him. “Yuvraj (the prince) thinks he is a superstar when he is not” he whispered, and he was dethroned.

Excellent analysis, Mukul.
Australians calling Indians racists is like the Pot calling the kettle black. Before all of us spend all our energy dissecting how our cast-eist culture has segregated our entire population, how people use skin fairness cream to look more white, lets stop at the fact that we don't need an Andrew Symmonds or Greg Chappell of all the people to remind us about that. They both are excellent at foul mouthing their opponents both on the field and off it.
So when Mr. Chappell raised his middle finger no one cried racist, not even the secular Indian media, because that probably translated in to some sort of western non racist gesture of anger.
When Andrew Symmonds told the media that "Indians" were way over the top celebrating the T20 win, no one perceived that as a racist gesture.
But when an Indian fan hits Mr. Chappell, its quickly construed as a sign of racist behaviour.
He was a horrible talentless coach who did nothing to bring the team together and produce results. Why should we care how he couldn't get the job done, isn't he a professional ? Stop being a baby, Mr. Chappell and produce results with the teams you coach. You're lucky you still have some admirers(Rajasthan cricket) left.

Greg has earned so much attention on this site. Well! Who says notoriety does not pay? A fraud and trickster wins more attention than the most pious man in town. We arent talking about winning respect? Are We?

Bill Wuthers ,
Your summary is so short on objective analysis.Here is what I see:
1.Chappel was appointed as coach based on his claims as a coach with new ideas.
2.When he assumed charge India were #2 in ODIs (WC2003)
3.when he left India were no where.
4.He was supported by BCCI to the extent that they covered up his selective leak of info. to his trusted journalists (like Rajan Bala)
5. He did not do one honourable thing during his tenure (unless showing the middle finger to the Indian public and then feigning a finger injury is a honourable thing in your dictionary)
6.His predecessor was a newzelander and he did not find the Indians racistic, nor did he try to divide the team into seniors and juniors
7.Ever since he left, India is doing much better- they won the historic series in England (while Chappel and his methods lost it in India),we beat SA in England, we are beating Pakistan (with handsome contributions from the much maligned seniors!!!!)
8. I pity Greg, all his schemes have fallen through and he has to settle for a low profile coach job, where Indian coaches like Ramakant Achrekar have excelled.
9.Greg Chappel succeeded in ODIs largely because of the supersub rule - once that was tossed out, his record became miserable..
10. Next time, Bill, you write a sweeping comments like this - please care to check the facts

Yes, guru greg had a vision; yes, he had success in his early days as the indian coach. But, thats about it.
And yes, he got punched by somebody. But that was for being insensitive and ungrateful to someone who got him here in the first place. But then greg wouldn't know what being grateful means - thats not the way they are made down under!...

Oh come on! Forget whether you like Chappell or not or whether he ruined India's potential to be true challengers to Australia. Suck it up. India will continue to be a second rate team, beating up minor opposition, when the majority of its supporters and its administration continue to be in denial. There is much that is wrong with Indian cricket, but ignoring the issues is not the way to solve them!

Mukul, I've been a reader of your blogs for a while, and the quality has been deteriorating rapidly, best exemplified by your two previous posts. It should be renamed to "Things Mukul Kesaven likes and does not like". The only good thing to say about it is that reading the first para convinced me that it wasn't worth reading, ergo I did not bother. Please use the space to not push your personal agendas. Its a known fact that you have a fondness for VVS Laxman, and a dislike for Greg Chappel. Why harp on it endlessly instead of discussing something worthwhile and intersting? Greg C isn't even India's coach, for God's sakes!

The couple of articles by you that I really liked were the ones where you mentioned the role of an Indian fan and disparaged him for being a couch potato with overblown expectations. Well, you are becoming what you attack the most - an armchair critic and a hypocrite to boot. Or are you trying to compete with the Sunny Gavaskar in the "who hates the Aussies more" stakes? Whatever it is, some navel gazing is really called for.

aHMAD glad you agree Pakistanis are minor opposition!! we beat them afterall!!

Arjun has given the most balanced response to this article.
As for criticism of Chappell the coach, firstly, undoubtedly an all-time great as a player, he is quite frankly an ordinary coach.
Secondly, that being said, he cannot bat, bowl, field, or train for his players. India's performance as a team is an indictment on the players' ability and application rather than on the coach

What can one say about a man who demotes himself from a coach to a national team to be the coach of a lowly ranked state team (no offense to Rajathan cricket!, but currently they arent in the superleague. It is fits in tune with his down to earth bowling of the last ball to the NEWZEALANDERS, to deny them the chance of hitting a six! This man says in the same racial abuse piece to the aussie media, that he wanted a younger team and the presence of seniors (read ganguly, tendulkar, dravid) was the reason why india didnt world cup! Cotrast this with his own country's team in world cup - average age of the team was well over 27 with old coots like hayden and gilchrist well over 36, while the oldest members in the indian team at the time of world cup was tendulkar / ganguly both 34! Any way media should stop hyping on the aussies too much! Great Steve waugh visited udyan in Calcutta while ganguly was at the helm of affairs just to mentally rub him in - look i am doing some charity in your town, and pray how many times waugh came after ganguly went off? Chappell may have been a great batsman, but as a man he stoops so low that he is beneath contempt!

They're all racist!!! The INDIAN PUBLIC, MURALITHARAN, GAVASKAR, JARDINE, RANATUNGA, LARWOOD, IAN BOTHAM -- all racist!
Australia, that cricketing nation composed of ex-cons, exiles, crocodiles, kangaroos and aborigineis is the only non-racist place where the sport is played. Cheers to Australia, they've won 3 World Cups! They can say whatever they want.
As for the racist nation of Non-Australia, focus on the sport, not on the opponent!!!

Lot's of comments already so wondering if I can add something new.
Chappell was punched simply because he was Greg Chappell. Nothing more, nothing less. He had done enough to become unpopular. It should end there - linking it to racism and generalizing about Indians is wrong and in poor taste.
At the same time looking at Chappell as the embodiment of Australians is an unfounded generalization.

Australians play hard as they should, Indians also play hard - that's just how it is.
Complaining after the match - we haven't heard the likes of Ganguly, Tendulkar etc complain have we. But we have heard Waugh, Symonds etc complain. Again no generalizations - that's just how these blokes are.
John Wright never got punched - there is much admiration for him in India.

Some of us have taken potshots at the BCCI and Vengsarkar as well - are these informed decisions or just rants. Many years ago I played Under 15 and Under 19 cricket at the state level - I admired the processes and systems in place then and am confident things have become better over time.
We shouldn't complain so much and we should support our team much more. And we should have an open mind about who our next coach should be - just the most suitable person for the job regardless of country of origin.

Any non-Indian who quotes "The Caste System" as an example of Indian racism obviously doesn't have the slightest idea what he's talking about. That's done and dusted - it's in the same class of rubbish as claims that South Africa still runs under apartheid - no offense meant to South Africans, but the point is that the caste system is gone as surely as apartheid is.

For those who feel Symonds was done in on race, think again. Indian fans like the men who respect them. Indian fans in Chennai gave even Pakistan - yes, our "old enemy" - a standing ovation in Chennai after they won a Test. Not that the Australians here recently didn't play better. It was just that the Pakistanis then didn't go shooting their mouths off the way Symonds did this time about silencing stadiums. And no, one retort from a relative newcomer in the squad about "fighting fire with fire" isn't a sufficient response to shut the Blue Billion up. In fact, it's fuel to the fire, because it shows that the visitors have offended the Gods of the Indian cricket pantheon and worse, their believers too.

Nobody did monkey chants when whole teams of black men from the Caribbean, Kenya and Zimbabwe made the rounds of our stadiums because these men knew what to say and how to say it. To Symo's credit, my respect for him has gone up a thousandfold for the quiet and efficient way in which he handled the whole issue after it happened, but if he didn't want to cop it in the first place, he should have done some groundwork on how to behave to keep the Indian fans happy. Not that I'm defending the monkey chants, because that's forever put a black mark on our otherwise fantastic cricket crowds. But Symonds and the rest of the team definitely had a fair bit coming, whether that fair bit was racist or not. Steve Waugh and the team he brought here are enough proof of how this country can love men of a different colour - as long as they don't rub the crowd the wrong way. That doesn't mean Waugh wasn't aggressive in the media. He was just very careful about how he put things.

If you still want to go ahead and drive the crowd wild, do it and then be prepared to sow what you reap, instead of telling us how to treat our cricketers. Sure, maybe burning effigies is a bit extreme by your standards but that's what makes our cricket culture what it is. I am not defending those who burn effigies or break down cricketers' houses. But attempting to twist our society into functioning the way yours does was the exact thing Chappell tried - and he paid the price. And that's where the question of respect for culture comes in - something Chappell never seemed to have, as someone has pointed out in an earlier comment.

The fan who hit Chappell was obviously just a few steps from going around the bend, as enough people have pointed out before me, and I can only laugh at Australians who claim sub-continental cries of racism are coming back to haunt us, or something to that effect. Cricketers from the sub-continent used to complain about verbals in the past because as a culture, we don't do those things. South Africans, Australians and their ilk may have it written into their sporting culture, but we do not. Even the wars in our mythology are notable for the respect to the opponents and for the codes of honour that were never broken - to the extent of not fighting after sunset. Even now, old-schoolers like Tendulkar will not say a negative word on the pitch. It is only now that Indian cricket is catching up, realising that this is the way the game will be played. Forgive us if Harbhajan or Sreesanth sound pathetic swearing or exhibiting their limited wit in English, because that is not our first language, and you will suspect darker things if they go on in Punjabi, Malayalam, Hindi or Urdu. We can only hope that more Westernized players like Ganguly, who're more comfortable with English and can therefore give it back to you, can make up for the vacuum you feel.

Personally, I have worries about Lalit Modi's sanity. Bringing the Great Divider back isn't a good idea at all. Forget Chappell's talk of truth and shooting from the hip. Has everyone forgotten his weakness for leaking e-mails that should've been confidential? And his habit of speaking to any (media) man on any topic he liked, whether or not the matter deserved confidentiality? That isn't being tough or hard. It's smacks of unprofessionalism and lacks sophistication. Chappell is guaranteed trouble in a foreign culture that he refuses to understand. His intolerance will definitely catch up with him sooner rather than later, but let it not be at the expense of prospective talents from our country at the RCA. He's already made a bad start and from past experience, it's not going to improve if he doesn't change quickly. The sooner he's sent out of the country's sporting system, the better it will be for us.

Apart from attempting to make the Indian team field better and supporting Yuvraj and Raina, like he owed it to them, Chappell has not been anything more than a hypocrite and a cynic. I'm glad you pointed it out Mukul.
Racism is not to be taken in a light and emotional way like Mr. (Self Contradicting) Chappell suggests.

Chapell had a vision where cricket mad India actually achieved the number one ranking that they should have by virtue of having a population of 1 billion people. Oh silly him. Of course, now that Chappell is no longer their coach, will India will attain their true place at the top of world cricket? I don't think so. Australian selectors do not hesitate to move decisively to bring in new blood even when existing players (yes, even some of the greats)seem to be performing well enough to hold their place. This is precisely the point that needs to be addressed by India, (and sadly I admit by England too.) Many of the senior players have not been good enough to get India to the top, only good enough to not lose their place in the side. The selectors need to be fans of Indian cricket - not fans of individual players - not fans of various regions of India. The selectors have to set themselves long term goals - not short term ones like not being beaten by Australia in the next series. Surely the goal should be to develop a team that can consistently win both in India and abroad.
PS. I can only applaud Greg Chappell with milking as much money as possible out of a nation of racists like India. I have lived in India and Australia and I think racism is more obvious, prevalent (even seemingly approved by society) in India. Well, that's how I see it anyway. Good luck India in your forthcoming battle with the Aussies. Maybe a few more poojas will help.

I have no problem with aussies but their fixation with indian caste system, proves that half knowledge is dangerous more than amply. The caste system evolved was centuries old with an economic interdependence interwoven in the society. It had its merits and demerits. At least most of the descendants of the castes in India are still alive, despite the caste system! What about aborigines in the aussie land? My case rests!
secondly, in case of chappell, an total stranger purportedly hit him, he could have been mentally imbalanced, motivated - cause fully not known, not disclosed! Compare and Contrast this with the aussie great lillie who picked up fight with javed, who had to defend himself with his bat, or with michael slater who abused dravid and umpire venkat when a grounded catch was not given out! Any way the aussies and the world know that the paying public and moolah is in india and hence they will crib about the food, hotels, crowd, weather and still continue to tour - who can resist money?

The Aussie fans would disagree with Mukul and most of the bloggers in this post. But some has been talking about castes in India. Sure it's a problem in India and so is poverty. No one is denying that. But to use it as a trump card in a complete out of context shows how badly the Aussie fans here misreads criticism.

But then look at it... when the young guns were given change under Chappell era, did they fair well? No. A few matches won against Sri Lanka does not substantiate Chappell's stance.

Why get rid of experienced players and bring in fresh blood when it does not work. Has Australia dropped older players? Hayden was dropped and brought back so has been Ganguly. Both have since played well. While Hayden was instrumental in last Aussie world cup win, Ganguly destroyed the team morale (as per Chappell)??? How can it not be seen as a Chappell’s personal vendetta against the former captain?

Didn't Steve Waugh warn Ganguly against Chappell?

Chappell throughout his tenure has been loose cannon, firing and retracing his words. Remember comments on Sourav Ganguly's financial need to be a captain and the comment on Indian lawmakers? He in future would continue to make absurd comments... but to counter him in blogs makes India nation a racist nation!

We have a lot of respect for Aussie cricketers like Steve Waugh, Ian Chappell and Denis Lillie. BCCI has long worked with Lillie in the MRF foundation. Our association with Aussie players is not new. Has racism been labeled against us before by these former players…? No! Crowd misconduct or a lunatic’s punch does not make a nation or its people racist. Going by Chappell’s definition of a racist attack or racism no country would ever be devoid of racists and count Australia in….

Why do we care about Greg and his sensationalism? We should put him behind us - he is the perfect example of a great batsman blinded by his egotism - who believes he can do no wrong - and never owned up to his share of the blame for India's poor performance
He is just going with the norm of raking the mud to make moolah
Mukul - dont waste your ink on him please

WHAT ABOUT THE MIDDLE FINGER THAT CHAPPEL SHOWED TO THE INDIAN PEOPLE AT KOLKATTA........!!!
DIDN'T BCCI COVER THAT ONE........???
I THINK CHAPPEL BLAMES THE BCCI FOR COVERING UP THE UNCHN ISSUE THAN HE SHOULD ALSO THANKX THE BCCI FOR COVERING UP HIS FINGER SHOWING ISSUE.........!!!

Rightly said,
Chappel was an asshole and ruined Indian cricket like never before. Instead of kicking him out of the country, we called him back to RCA as a coach again. The media would do everyone a favor by not publishing shit stuff that he keeps coming up with. It is really irritating to watch him go on and on. He still passes comments about the Indian team, after he was literally kicked out as coach. A guy with reasonable amount of dignity would have refrained fro making any further comment.

Hats off to you,well researched and well writeen Mukul.

The Australian press will carry the racist line and give the Australian public the wrong impression that India is a racist country. The fact remains that Greg Chappell never toured India, it was too hot, the pitches were too flat, the umpires were not upto the mark, the food was too spicy. Who is racist, Greg Chappell or some irate fan that supposedly 'attacked' him. Was a police report filed at the time, if so, was it enteretd as a racially motivated attack, or an attack of an irate fan, gone mad. The Australian press played up the Andrew Symonds case recently in a flagrant display of selective reporting, and now they will play this trash, all in the lead up to the India tour, Why, because they can't take the new brand of Indian Ssedging, you see, they can give, but they could never take it like men!

C'mon Aussie C'mon!

Greg Chappell was an unmitigated disaster for Indian cricket. He took a confident and reasonably successful team and turned it into a rabble that was almost as insecure and paranoid as he is himself. The further he stays from India, the better.

Well put, Mukul

The only comments with any real analysis are those by Pramod Manokaran. I would have written more, but he has said it all.

I tend to agree with a previous comment that Chappell is a businessman and he is here for money. Otherwise why would he come back after the debacle in the World Cup. His racism claims were absurd, however him getting punched in the airport should be shameful to the whole country as well, whatever the team does or whatever he does to the team does not justify him being punched on the jaw.

Chappell wanted a team with youth and agility for the world cup, which in mine opinion was not a bad thing. His openly said to Ganguly that he should resign from test captaincy which is a very "un Indian" and insensitive thing to say, but thats how the Australian cricket culture is. The problem with the subcontinent is that we are more concerned with individuals. I have seen it from a very early age, poeple are happy that Sachin scored a century although India lost the match. Sachin Tendulkar is one of my favourite players as well, but to me the most important thing is to see the team win. Dropping Saurav Ganguly was a mistake, but bringing him back because he was unfairly dropped was another mistake too and you cannot fix a mistake by making another. BCCI should have seen it coming when they decided to appoint someone like Chappell who is very open and frank with what he says.

Finally someone made a comment about Gavaskar having a go at the Aussies. I agree completely, no offense, Gavaskar was a great player and have given a lot to Indian cricket (probably as much as Kapil and Sachin) and I respect him for that. But as a cricket analyst and commentator he has made some comments which are utterly ridiculous and disgraceful and I believe he should not be working for any broadcasters. His attack on the Aussies was totally uncalled for and Ricky Pointing was right to strike back the way he did. Here is one of the best cricket teams every produced in a country where a great system is producing wonderful players and Gavaskar makes a ignorant stab at them. After those comments I think he should be banished from ICC committee and also from his employers. We dont need poeple like Gavaskar in this game (after he has retired from playing). I want Australia to lose at any cost but I admire the hard work and planning they have put in for the last 30 years in the development of cricket, the fruits of which are being enjoyed by the whole world of test cricket.

well done, mr kesavan. You've waited with bated breath for Chappell to make a move and watched the documentary the day it was released. You waste no time finding fault with anybody who's an Aussie. I am very much an Indian but I love Australia. I like their spirit, professionalism, their desire to win and their selflessness. (If Ponting declared when one of their batsmen was on 194, you wouldn't hear any complaints from the batsman unlike our beloved God, Sachin Tendulkar). Our Indian cricketers were too thick to appreciate Greg's vision. One can't expect historian-turned-cricket writers to be any less thick. We are several light-years behind the Australians to appreciate what Greg had to offer.

why can't ppl see that our cricketers are light years behind the australians and that and only that is the reason for India's poor performance. don't blame Greg if you can't see this.

I won't blame Mukul for his remarks. He is a writer - he makes his living by building an audience. In fact, his compensation may be linked to the number of page views his blog gets on cricinfo. Now, judging by the names of the people posting, this site is mostly visited by Indians. So - guess what, Mukul has no choice but to pander to them - thereby driving his ratings up. And there is no better way to pander than to beat up on Greg and the Ozzies in general. Welcome to yellow journalism !! You mau hate it - but it brings in the bucks.

Its funny how things come around. Greg Chappell for all his faults tried one thing- get younger, more agile players into the team and the clamour from the media and fans was to bring back Ganguly. Chappell was hounded out for "experimenting" with young players. Then a coachless young India won the T20 cup. Suddenly the media and the fans started the clamour for young blood and the heads of the seniors Ganguly, Dravid etc.. Was Chappell right after all?? Where is the perspective??? Where is the balanced arguement?? As a group we Indians swing wildly between the two ends of a spectrum!!! There is never any middle ground.

Racism is an ugly word. The traditional simple definition is that when a white man discriminates against a non white it is racism. But when it happens the other way around it is not. This is waht Mukul and some of the others seems to be saying. India with its Cast system, Hindu/Muslim problems and many other developing third world countries are the most racist by tradition but do no want to admit. It is always the white man. How strange.

Regd - Non White

Dear Mr.Kesavan,You write well.You have a keen understanding.It is an insult to call greg a Guru which is a sacred word in our Scripture.A man who made an obscene finger sign has no moral authority to be back in India.Australins did not make him coach.He advised his brother to bowel underarm,yet talks about our culture.What are his values.He clearly understood the apathetic BCCI, the not so sophisticated Indian media.He is exploiting both and also the insecurities of Indian players , in the processes making money that he cannot make downunder.he is having the last laughs.He is a failed coach with no moral courage.When he knew that India would not make it to World cup as he claims now , he should have left.Money is greater than Indian teams cause.BCCI should politely ask him to leave so he can spend time Punch and Judy.

Once again Chappell has resorted to pointing fingers by allowing the old interview to run on the air. This is deliberate and careless on his part. If he really cared, and felt otherwise, we should have stopped or modified the interview. He should not take responsibility without accountability. BCCI should bar him from taking any assignments in India in the future. And what is Lalit Modi thinking in hiring him after such a debacle for the Rajashthan Cricket Academy. He has accused the BCCI of cover up for the Orissa incident. He has brought racism charges. Everything is others' fault according to him. We should stop kissing his ass and tell him to go back to OZ and get a job there.

I haven't read this article, I believe there is no need to read an article on "Greg Chappel the coach". I believe he lacks coaching , more importantly man management skills. I don't believe he has a resume with at least good coaching experience. Greg Chappel should learn from John Buchanan , on how he managed Shane Warne, though he had differences with him.

Dear Vish Padmanabhan - it isn't the Australian media that gives us the impression India is a racist country, it's the "fans" who pack your stadiums and make monkey chants at Andrew Symonds. Before you point out the mote in your neighbour's eye....

Oh, and beofre India decides there is nothing they can learn from Australians, perhaps they should try playing like Australians for once. You know, like by actually winning something.

Give it a rest Mukul. Regardless of whether Chappel is right or wrong, your article (along with a few more recent ones) is just not worthy of being published in cricinfo.

I don't know when you started hating Chappell, but your earlier insightful analyses have given way to drivel.

This is no different than the the populist TV commentators who know that by criticising Chappell they will look good.

Greg was given a team of his choice. Sourav was kept out at any cost, I mean, by whatever excuse was needed by Mr. More. But, then, Greg was no coach--it had to show up at some point. The media touted Team India was not a team but few individuals worn down from trying to be in the team by keeping Uncle Greg happy. India was failing miserably in South Africa. And the racist Asian God sent Sourav to rescue the team. It was the biggest slap on Greg's face. It was so shameful for him to swallow. Sourav saved the team in the next series too, he was chosen Man of the Series. And then India goes to WC with Sourav. While others fail, Sourav does well. You know now why--because Sourav wasn't coached by Greg.

How can Aussies ever complain about racism? Aren't they who invented racism? They quickly forget their fans' treatment of South Africa. Also they are the ones who invented sledging. It is so hilarious that now they are being cry babies.

To the Australians on the board crying racism:

Yes, the Symonds incident was a foul example of racism. Yes, the BCCI and the police covered it up. And yes, most right-thinking Indians are ashamed of it.

As for Chappell, while I agree nobody has any right to hit another man, to call it racism is ridiculous. For reasons right or wrong, he raised the hackles of many Indian cricket 'fans', who know just about as much about cricket as you could stick into George W. Bush's brain. Now, one of those idiots slaps Chappell across the face, that's not racism - that's plain, bleedin' idiocy.

So, in conclusion, w.r.t Symonds = yes, racism. w.r.t Chappell = b*ll*cks!!!

Hair's a drama queen if you ask me; but I don't know how he came into the whole story anyway.

Greg Chapell's coaching (in)ability was the biggest cover up. Notwithstanding his lackluster tenure with South Australia, Ganguly had the wool pulled over his eyes because of the 100 he made in Brisbane. Probably attributed more credit than was due to Greg and less to his own abilities and determination. Thanks to having made India suffer at the world cup, look what happened in Chappell's own country. It is no secret that the man was angling not for the cricket manager's job but for coaching the Australian Cricket Academy. However, for all their shortcomings, the Australian Board recognised the spectre of losing an entire generation of talent and handed the job to someone else. And, our senile old man of Indian Cricket who wants to have young blood everywhere except for his own job has brought him to coach the kids in his backyard. Rajasthan has not won the Ranji trophy in the last 50 years, and with this one move, Raj Singh Dungarpur has ensured that they will not win one in the next 50.
Finally, Mukul, I think you are absolutely brilliant when your judgement is not clouded by your heart. In future, please stay away from writing articles about VVS Laxman. It would do both him and you a world of good.

I don't think Mukul would like to see a realistic view from a neutral person, because quite often he has censored my posts, as he is so used to seeing only those posts on his blog in which people appreciate him by starting their post with praises and accolades such as, brilliant, excellent, great, wonderful and Mukul you are on spot, you are on the dot and you have said it, Mukul etc. That is because most people like to hear, read and see the praise that is directed towards them and those who say they don't, actually want to hear, see and read it again. Anyways, "IF" this post of mine makes its way uncensored into the crowd of Mukul's supporters and admirers, let there be some criticism and sarcasm directed towards me, I am used to that and I can deal with that very well, provided you are generous in accommodating my retorts.

First of all let me make it very clear that, I am not a fan of Greg Chappell, neither as a batsman, Captain or Coach nor has he ever impressed me as an individual. In fact, upon knowing much later about his shameful act i.e., about what he did against New Zealand in 1981 as a captain i.e., when he asked his brother Trevor Chappell to bowl underarm, he lost that sportsman spirit respect in my eyes and the only phrase that came to my mind was, win "by hook or by crook."

There is a link below which highlights the details of that story if anyone is interested in reading it, please go ahead. I would also like to add here that one of my uncles who happens to be an ardent fan of this game and a collector of sports magazines, newspapers, videos etc., showed me a newspaper clipping from a New Zealand newspaper, which was in response to Greg Chappell's underarm bowling, the headlines were: "Chappell your underarm stinks."

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2004/s1035164.htm

Now, coming to this Satirical Exposé of Mukul using the famous 'Judy and Punch Muppet Show' as a source of entertainment, which he so generously tried to explain it to us (ignorant blokes,) reminds me of that infamous Pakistani Ghazal singer, Ghulam Ali, famous for singing the same Ghazal in every gathering. And, whenever he is singing Urdu Ghazals for Indian audience he ruins the magic and the charm of Urdu poetry by trying not only to translate it in easy Urdu or Hindi, but he also tries to narrate the history and the background of those verses in his "pay&do" accent which is not so pleasing to the Ghazal lovers.

Anyways, back to Mukul's satire, I think it is needless, unwarranted and out of context. To me it appears like a trivial attempt from him to gain some attention from his readers. I don't think this is a civilized way of retaliating or responding to Chappell's complaint. You may write as many satirical essays, sitcoms, TV shows whatever to ridicule and make fun of him, the fact that you cannot hide or ignore is, Greg Chappell was physically abused and victimized for no reason. He was punched on his face by a frustrated angry fan who took out his frustration at him and not on the players. The coach has nothing to do with the poor performance of the team in the world cup or any match they loose. It is the players who play the game and not the coach and, a coach can only do something to help them, guide them or talk to them, but he cannot play on their behalf.

In Pakistan too during the World Cup, some people burnt effigies of Bob Woolmer, his sudden and tragic death brought some respect to his name and for his family. Otherwise, the Pakistanis too would have done something similar to him. So, in a way he is lucky not to be alive to face such humiliation and physical abuse. BCCI may have covered up the whole saga for whatever reasons or perhaps thats the way they handle issues like these. They also underplayed the pushing incident of Mr. Sharad Pawar from the stage when the over excited, unruly bunch of Ponting men wanted to pose for a photograph pushed him out from the stage. Initially Mr. Pawar said, it is OK, OK. But, later he complained that he felt very insulted with that kinda manhandling and physical abuse. Why did he take such a long time to complain about it, why didn't he complain then?

Chappell must have also thought in the same way so many times before talking about it now. There are so many examples in the medical field that patients who have been abused, suppress their feelings and emotions and keep it to themselves for years and they vent out their feelings after many years and in some case up to decades and, some never speak about it. So, what Chappell did was nothing unusual or strange. It is very easy for people to ridicule someone but, it is very difficult to praise or give them the respect that they deserve. This is the same Greg Chappell when India hired him a few years ago and the people of India were very happy about hiring a coach who is very highly qualified, professional, experienced, well known cricket player from a great cricket playing nation. No one ever talked about his underarm bowling then. Out of respect they called him "Guru" or Master and the other extreme was when he failed in their eyes, they called him Chappal or Slipper. And they actually beat his effigy with slippers and burnt it.

I am surprised to see the response from some Indian supporters on this blog showering praises and accolades at Mukul for providing them with such cheesy, sleazy sort of entertainment and even a "supposedly," self-proclaimed highly qualified person called, "DR.CMM SUNDARAM MD MRCP MBA" with so many strings attached to his name is confirming the standards of his academic qualifications and his abilities from those 3 lines that he wrote. The first (wnt) could have been a typo but, the way he spelled the word, "ignorance" shows how ignorant and naive he is. Yet, he talks with so much authority and attitude.

Finally the punch line is for Mukul: Boy there is nothing farcical about receiving a punch on your face - in fact it is a real thing. There is a Latin expression by Horace: "Primum ipsi tibi." It means: "If you wish to draw tears from me, you must feel pain yourselves." So, you better get a punch from your Judy and see how it feels. ;-)

You are cordially invited for the seaside entertainment at Chowpati beach.

Ps. please bring your own Bhel Puri.

This one is for the Australian bloggers: if you are content getting your information about India and Indians from the Australian media and history textbooks written with a missionary slant, then pray confine your opinions to those forums. Otherwise, come to India with an open mind, see, and judge for yourself how Indians really are, and then express your own opinions here. After all, that's what blogs are for: to provide a voice for the unheard. The voice of the biased media: we hear a lot of it everyday everywhere.

Well said Mukul, this i sthe very 1st time i am posting comments on this site. I certainly disagree with a few people's comment posted. Greg Chappel the only good thing about him was get the youngster to the side which is no different from any other coaches wanting to do when hired. So did the best ever coach for India as per my iknowledge John Wright under whose era we saw Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer, Bhajji, Mhmd Kaif(now a non-existence) etc.. a also the making of the best ever Indian captain Saurav. Greg's vision did sound good but i declare him as the worst executioner of his own plans of trying to benefit the Indian team. Few have spoken abt our media off balance nothing wrong in that but then our media is no diff to the other world's sport media. I live in London i keep up news on football, cricket etc on daily basis m a sports fanatic. No the gr8 commentors get some research in place b4 critisizing our own ppl doing the job. Its simple rule in the media industry for alll businesses & sports if u perform u will be hailed to the extreme levels & when u under perform to the expectations of the millions they will show you the ground, but appreciate them atleast they clearly show the both ends each time unlike Greg who never knew what he was upto as a coach of the Indian team. I would like to call him an abuser to Indian Fans whne he showed his wrinkled middle finger to one of the supporters of the game. He tried to establish a policy of divide and rule within the team which the english of yesteryears were good at and not the aussie which he should know but to some extent he could suceed in his personal goal & resulted in a decabled world cup showing of the Indian Team bring an end to his tenure as a coach to the Indian team.

Mukul, please stop these pointless, horrendously long columns that make no sense and get back to your terse humorous self.
Greg is expressing a feeling - and you are arguing against it? If I see a doctor and complain that I have a headache and the doctor argues with all logic that I should not have a headache instead of treating the symptoms - I would not communicate with the doctor in a proper manner.
It is the same case with you media guys - you are so news hungry and criticize (with the benefit of hindsight of course), misreport and misinterpret every single word that players, coaches, and administrators say, that it is quite possible that peopke say things to you and don't really mean it.

Apparently some of India's rich cricket culture has rubbed off on Chappell , although he is right not to change a thing. If you said something that was true , you said it and it remains the truth. No backtracking whatsoever.
Either it is or it isn't a racist attack , nothing else matters even the good coach or bad coach.
Do you all seriously think that the cricket bodies in India are purely interested in cricket ? Now the Indians are crying yet again.
Do you really think anybody could be as dominant as the Aussies with a bunch of primadonna's like the Indian. The Aussie key to success is humbleness and love for the game by spending years in domestic game waiting for a spot. We don't fight over leadership or batting or bowling spots. We have to do our job first and speak out later , not the other way around.
A coach is as good as his team performs !

( And yes , your Twenty20 celebrations were over the top, so was an open bus ride + Knighthood in London for the Brits.)

Australian spectators hurled racial insults on Indian journalists on the last Indian tour of Australia - the incidents were very disturbing at Brisbane especially - Sambit Bal and India journalist with Crickinfo was one of the recipients of the abuse - But Indians and Asians have long endured Aussie racism - so for Chappell to comment on Indian racism is far-fetched - Indians do not know how to abuse Aussies -

In fact, before the India Australia ODI series, Rodny Hogg and Kim Hughes made derogatory comments that Indian batsmen cannot handle short pitched bowling etc

Greg Chappel and a horde of Aussies are rking in millions of dollars courtesy of cricket crazy India in form of advertisements etc.m Ausseis are not Suave and debonair like US models/pros are - still Brett Lee and other Ausseis fetch millions from indian deals -

what a shame - India cannot find its own models

are we getting anywhere with this?there are too many complex issues mixed in this discussion and the least we can do is make things muddier by visceral reactions and needless stereotyping.

Does it even matter if the punch was motivated by racism?even if it wasn't,doesn't take away from the fact that racism is almost as rampant in Indian mindset as any other nation( my theory is that racism exhibited by indians is mostly reactionary and actually a manifestation of sub-conscious inferiority complex.......could be matter of sociological discourse)

And if the punch wasn't racist, it was still stupid at so many levels still.

Us Indians have to act more mature and have more self- confidence than to cry the bogey of the ' arrogant white man' every freaking time someone points the obvious flaws in our psyche/society/culture .

Chappell might have been an abysmal coach and a less-than-straightfwd customer but he is here to make money and its the jackasses in the BCCI who should step y
up and define what exact contribution he can make to Indian cricket.

The world and the players and the Indians and the Australians and the Pakistanis and the coaches all are less than perfect and trying to make the best of what we have.

All of us type in www.cricinfo.com because we love this game.the least we can do is try to get along with others who do so too.

Mr. srini, why dont you check your facts as well...Under wright india lost the ODI series to Pak 2-4 in India, did not win a single test series of note outside the sub-continent...had a 53% win record in ODIs under mr. ganguly and mr. wrights...Now lets have a look at the chappel era..17 straight wins while chasing, Series win in WI after 35 years, victory in test in SA, and a win record of 57%...yes, but then mr. chappel did not embrace the indian culture of poor discipline, no planning, poor work ethics...he tried to instill discipline, he did not believ in superstars (so your cricket gods and people like you got offended), he tried to instill work ethics (which obviously is against the laziness prevalent in india in all walks of life)..so everyone shouted that chappel was not embracing indian culture, he destroyed the fibre of the cricket team which prior to 2003 WC had been pulverised in NZ (how soon people forget poor performances in India)...as for Mr.Raghuvansh, who says caste system is no longer prevalent in india, must be living in his own world...please step out of it and look around..even today people from lower caste are treated worse than the so called "sacred animals"..dont live in a dream world...and with regards to the point of embracing the culture when on cricket tours...how many indians who have immigrated generation back embraced the culture of their home countries? even today 2nd or 3rd generation indians in UK support the indian cricket team..so when british authorities question their loyalty, why do people cry foul and term such remarks as racist? Indians want people to come and accept their culture but do not want to accept the culture of the country where they live and earn their livelihood is a showcase of double standards prevalent in the indian society...Also, when sub - continent players are taunted for their remarks abroad and the crowds target them then the crowd is considered boorish and racist, but when the indian crowd does so, then a player has made the remark that he wants to silense the "indian" crowd, it is perfectly acceptable. And because the player in question made such a remark, then its ok for the crowd to use monkey chants and behave as monkeys just to get under the skin of the player. But when the crowd in the west chants"chucker" to get under the skin of Murali, then its not fairplay and the remarks are termed as racist...brillliant !!!..Its shows the blatant hypocrisy which is used by the sub - continent to prove that every wrong that they do is right...And with regards to code of honor in wars, Mr Raghuvansh, that is something which is prevalent across the world and not just in your country..so do not twist words..it would be better if you look at the darker side of your society instead of justifying everything is fair and that others have misunderstood your "culture", because, then by your logic, when you call the west racist, then it is so because you do not know anything about the western culture .

The man who hit Greg was a fanatic in search of a news paper headline.According to him He hit Greg because he did not pick up any one from Bhubaneswar in Indian team.The fact that he spelt the name of his favourite player wrongly shows that he is not genuine cricket fan.The poltical party whom he claimed to belong disowned him. So it is acase of lunatic seeking news paper headline.The case was investigated thoroughly by police at that time.The racialism issue is figment of imagination of the Australian. The choice of Greg by the person to get maximum impact. You will be surprised to note that the police Head of the state has been fired recently and one of the reason of this is that incident

This is disgraceful article by Mukul Kesavan, that aims to sympathise with Chappel but tries to minimise the seriosness of what occurred by using the punch and Judy analaogy. Address the issue he raises. If Tendulkar or Ganguly or one of the other has beens was hit while in England, Australia or South Africa, there wuld be a huge hue and cry from India. Its no wonder India has not been able to find a coach for so long. who in their right mind would want to coach such an unprofessional group and organisiation such as the Indian Cricket team and the BCCI.

As I said in my post yesterday, get over it. Chappell didn't work out, so what? Get some one else. We are always hearing how much money Indian cricket has, go hire Alex Ferguson. Better still, get Gavaskar out of his ivory tower and he can show 'em how he made 36 not out in 60 overs at the World Cup. He probably finds it more comfortable where he is, how many rupees is he on? Coaches are a waste of time. India, like the other Test teams in the world, are obsessed with what Australia does, when they should concern themselves with playing their own game. Australians biggest crime seems to be they swear a bit, they talk in a blunt manner and win a lot. Then you've got a magoo like Sreesanth who thinks he's Lillee and McGrath rolled into one, just play your own game and concentrate on what you can control. It's pretty simple really, I'm sure Chappell would've suggested it somewhere along the line. Difference is, I'm telling you for free.

Man gets hit in public. Columnist writes column criticizing the man. Hugh..? You dint like his coaching? Fine. You don’t like him as a person? Ok. You think he is the greatest evil since Hitler? Say that but don’t attack him if he is complaining, however inconsistently, about getting hit.

Firstly, Chappell has no right to accuse our board of doing cover-ups. I remember a while back, a couple of Australian cricketers were let off with fines for "giving weather-related information to bookies". That, I think, was as big a cover-up as John F. Kennedy's murder plot. The world knew what the Aussie cricketers were into. Secondly, the Indian and Pakistani boards were among the first to take actions against the match-fixers along with South Africa. Also, if Indians were a bunch of recist people, I wonder why John Wright was loved and respected the way he was throughout India, he was a white guy too. In the end, its the person's thinking, attitude and his work that matters. Throughout his cricketing career, the only greatness that Chappell has achieved is as a batsman, not as a captain, not as a coach, not as a manager, not as an administrator and certainly not as a human being.

This is another beating around the bush column in typical indian hypocracy. The Point is, Chappell was punched and BCCI didn't do anything about it than playing down the incident. Or you are trying to say that Indians are not racist??? Just look at the comments then write another crappy column.

Firstly, to those who think Indian cricket is languishing, good morning. Do you remember the Test series in the recent England tour? There was the small matter of a Twenty20 Cup in South Africa two months ago. Followed by an ODI series where we lost, but gave a pretty tough fight. And now, the series against Pakistan. All without the presence of any coach, leave alone Greg. For those in other countries, the Twenty20 may have seemed hyped, but I can understand that. Either you're from a country that's won the last three ODI World Cups, for which I give that team full credit, or you're from some other country that's won nothing important in a long time. So now either it's sour grapes or you couldn't care. Feel free to think as you please. On the other hand, this happens to be a breath of fresh air for our cricket. It's a prestigious piece of silverware, and our team has won it rather convincingly. We have a right to feel proud and celebrate.

Dave, maybe you ought to learn a thing or two about India. I know a thing or two about how much the caste system is still prevailing, I was born right here in India and I happen to have lived in almost every conceivable part of India for twenty one years now. As far as the caste system is concerned, it doesn't exist as such. Yes, there are a few exceptions, but these tend to be from the most backward, rural, untouched parts of the country. Either that, or they're stoked by politicians for political gain. For the most part, Indians are sensible enough to recognize the equality of all men. Just for your information, similar exceptional cases of "racism" still occur in all the other societies of the world where race issues have ever raised their head, Australia, South Africa and the US included. Please don't make a fool of yourself by painting a whole country on the basis of a few isolated cases. This applies equally to all my compatriots as well who may have painted Australians or other cultures with a wide brush in the comments here.

Indians migrating to other countries may not have "embraced" that foreign culture, but that doesn't mean they disrespect it. And there lies a delicate difference you may want to think about - between "embracing" a culture (which it is unfair to expect someone to do, no matter what their immigration status, as long as they don't upset the local culture) and "respecting" it. Just because you migrate to another country doesn't mean you have to start rooting for their team. How many Aussies are settled in England? And how many of them root for the Poms during the Ashes? And try the same question for Englishmen settled in Australia as well.

We never wanted Chappell to wear Indian clothing or to speak Hindi, though we wouldn't mind if he did. We didn't care if he supported the Australian team - as long as it didn't come in the way of him doing a proper job with the Indian team, for which we were paying him a pretty packet. Our problem was with the way he seemed to have a talent for causing fractures in our team and for complaining about our country. He is free to complain about our board - we do enough of it anyway - but when he decides to make indiscreet proclamations in public about players and starts leaking confidential e-mails, or gives the finger to some random cricket fan, that's trouble. In this country, most people (except those few of us that are aware of how lightly it is taken in other societies) wouldn't take the finger salute lightly - whether the giver is Chappell or anyone else. Even if the fan provoked him first, Chappell should have enough intelligence to know better than to bark back at a barking dog. As a public figure, if nothing else, he has certain responsibilities.

Read my comment carefully. No sane person in India would justify the monkey chants - myself included. But Symonds asked for trouble, and it was unfortunate it took that form. And it's been a very long time since anybody claimed that Murali being taunted with "no ball" is racist. That tag came and went with Darrell Hair's part in the affair, and he's a sorry excuse for an umpire that I wouldn't bother discussing. Not because of his innumerable bad decisions, but more because of his pathetic attempts to work himself out of a spot by trying to get a pay-off from the ICC to drop umpiring, and for wasting a Test by calling ball-tampering without proper evidence. The "racist" tag applies more to calls like "black monkey" - something which a Sri Lankan player once received not at the hands of some deranged fan but at the hands of an Australian cricketer - a cultural ambassador of his country!

As for the talk of war culture, I'm not too sure you got the point. "Respect" in our context isn't just feeling respect for the opponent's skills, it includes a certain type of conduct towards the rival - and that includes not swearing at him, taunting him or using "mental disintegration". It just happens to be the way we are brought up. You're free to have a bit of fun with your rivals, that's YOUR culture and I won't object. But while it may be acceptable in your domestic leagues and in other similar-minded countries, you must understand that there are other parts of the world where it will rub people the wrong way. And if you read my comment carefully again, you'll find that I give that as a cause, not for the current scenario, but for the history of our complaints. As far as the current breed is concerned, I'm well aware of the attitude Saurav Ganguly brought in, and the thirst for verbal duels that Harbhajan, Sreesanth and company have. I admire them for the attempts to adapt, though it does go haywire sometimes, more out of ignorance and naïvete than anything else.

As for "no discipline, poor planning and poor work ethics....laziness", I couldn't imagine a more narrow-minded, bigoted comment. The times are changing, sir. It's YOU who needs to wake up and look around.

And I never once came close to calling the West racist. I happen to have a lot more respect for civilized people than to do that. I assume English is your first language; you don't seem to understand it too well though.

BOTH THE BROTHERS CHAPPEL ARE IN A DIRE NEED OF AN IMMEDIATE PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION

Javed Khan from Canada has badly missed some points.
1 No one argues about Greg's good performances in his playing days.
2 what is being discussed is his attitude to label the incident as racists. It feels like 'grapes are sour'. He terms it as 'highly immotional momnet' when the comment was made.
3 It is proved beyond doubt that he is not a good coach. A coach is the one who donot have only sound knowledge of the game but at the same time a good man manager.
4 A foreigner coach needs to be aware of how diverse the Country india is. Before you manage people of such diversity you should study a bit of culture then only you can man manage to some degree of success. Greg simply applied the principle of divide and rule.
5 Famous incident of under arm bowling is also pointer to his thinking.

Racism is such a prevalent part of australian society its no wonder they see it everywhere else too. This is not to excuse the bigotry that sometimes exists in our cultures.

This is terrible journalism and pathetic comments listed by most people - it is a typical Indian way of doing things, putting opinions on paper or on the web, without ascertaining the facts. It also points to the fact that we Indians never do a job properly - Mukul leads the pack of losers, i.e., the typical Indian middle class, critical, argumentative and obstreperous. Greg Chappell got hit and he was shaken up badly, and several months ago, he made those comments - admittedly, under an emotional condition. Mukul has just found another reason to bash him up, further, after the media in general made such a case against him, during the World Cup. Chappell has come back to India, because there is an opportunity for him to do what he likes the most - coach. Which is far more that can be said for most Indians - all incompetent fools, raking in money from the stock market, and thinking that they are such great people and as Bill said, 'winning nothing'. It is disgusting. My advice - talk less and learn to do work properly, and for heavens sake stop criticizing white people all the time. Instead learn how to do a job, clinically and professionally like the Aussies, the first thing the players learn is how to sledge and throw tantrums on the field - we are a laughing stock, and while we think, we are giving it back to those 'racist white people', we are undermining ourselves and losing focus.
Brillant post by 'Dave' - couldnt have said it better. Bravo. You make more sense than Mukul.

I hadnt quite agreed with your previous article, but glad to see that you are back with a bang. Glad to finally see the Indian media extracting subtle humuor out of the frivolous and outright funny complaints of racism by the Australians, rather than having debates and board room discussion on are we racists. hehehe.

My only question to the Australians is why were not Ponting or Hayden racially assaulted by Indians, rather than Symonds who is of the Indian skin color only? If that was because we are against our own skin colors ( which is so very funny anyway), then why was Chappel assaulted ? Because he was white ? Isn't that a lot of double standards ?

Both of them were treated the way they were because they showed disrespect to the Indian culture itself. And so we know who are racists in the first place.

We are so glad to finally see Chappels back, because that man had only come to ruin indian cricket. By the way, if the Australians are so fond of him, why didnt they offer him one of the coaching positions of their team or any of the cricket academies rather than letting him struggle out in the wilderness of the deserts of Rajasthan. Well the Australian board knows better.

And ya , but for once, I am actually happy by the decision that BCCI has made. In some of our Indian movies, when the villain has to be given a painful death, he is thrown away in the deserts of Rajasthan so that the vultures can feed on him until none of him remains. Probably Chappell deserves even worse.

I dont want to say anything on Chappel, raceism, or "THAT" punch, or the Aussie stereo typing of the Indian or Vice- versa. But I am amused to my bones reading these discussion threads and where they are going. Earlier they used to be insightful and helped me talk a good game but now they pretty much provide me with the same surrogate entertainment that one gets watching those road rage fights in delhi or a hot altercation in a fish market in Calcutta, or, for the sake of that mandatory aussie angle that every post requires, outside a bar in sydney. Just what are we trying to achieve again? Are we just Disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing? what exactly is the point people.

The pattern is all too familiar now, and its starting to get boring really. First there will be those 20 % who end up agreeing with Mukul, praise him for his controlled prose and a point or two of their own. Then, there will be those 40% posts who decry mukul and his writng and such as a sure shot ticket to have their names published. "Bad post mukul bad post. What happened dude? Why ? what do you have against x y and zeee (i prefer zed - btw)" those kinds..but those who really bother me ad naseum are usually those 20-35% long posts kinds who usually lose the plot after the first para but they try super hard to be guha, friedman, adam smith, milton, wisden and common sense all rolled into one. Sweeping generalizations a la Naipual, long discourses on the Indian caste system, the intricate workings of Chappels or Andrew Symonds or xyz mind, sincerely hoping someone gets impressed or acknowledges them their writing. And I honestly admit, I derive a viscious pleasure in people ending up making mockery of the language of logic and of the rhetoric trying to do that. Guys, be real, that doesn't work. No body ever ends up proving a point. Trust me, there is nothing to be achieved reading and re reading your posts a 100 times over and checking at hourly basis ( or less ) what the replies were...If you really are the hotshot thinker you claim you are, blogging is a better vent to all thats bottled up inside of you. Its still fun reading one on one replies at least someones engaged and you can be a passive observer..But mr know all reply poster spare me your words of wisdom... The best post for me was the gentleman who just went like " no one is better than aussie, firt beat aussie and then talk.." ..There is innocence and purity of thought in that comment and reeks of true heartfelt support...unlike the pseudo knowledgeble..someone..simply at the end of the our first duty is to the team that we support.! Its great to have insights and its even okay to share them but they should serve more as intruments that enhance ones own perception of the game and the tools to enjoy the cricket watching experience... posting here and hoping everyone reads it just feels like those crabs, you know the ones that never let anyone get out of the hole.. ! thats what everyones comes across as... !

Ps. mr montreal Khan.. sorry but I failed to understand the Ghulam Ali example...So let your Reactive instincts go wild and pray that he doesnt censor your reply.. and sorry if I made a spelling mistake or two..

Well, Mr Kesavan. One day, soon, you will have your face punched and then you can put yourself in Greg's position.

I do not understand why the Indian media and BCCI in particular is smitten by Chappell. BCCI should have moved on and roped in someone who is not detrimental to Indian Cricket's future. Here's a man who was paid a lot of money as India's coach keeping in mind the World Cup, which he flunked big time... Here's a man who said Tendulkar is past his prime right after he took after as the coach.... Here's a man who messed up Lakshman's and nearly Zaheer's career... Here's a man who nearly f*cked up Ganguly's career... Here's a man who still wants to get as much money as he can from BCCI and we still devote our Newspaper columns and Internet bandwith talking about an alleged racist attach. If he really thought India was racist, I can't understand the freaking reason of this guy taking up the current role in India.
My message to him is simple... Get out of country, leave us alone - go and maybe coach a County team and I am sure they would not want to have your and loud mouth. Leave us alone! And yes, the next time we pay some idiot big bucks to develop the Infrastructure or to coach, put in some freaking fine print so that we can haul that idiot's a*s to court.

to Mr.Raghuvansh - I was born and live in India too - to say that casteism does not exist today is a blatant lie.

Venkat is a typical south indian who is still pissed off about Rahul Dravid _GC fiasco that finally resulted in ouster of RD from the team following a total loss of confidence in his leadership. Venkat, grow-up and learn to admire an astute writer as Mukul.

Shame on you Mukul. The man was assaulted by a fan. Whatever it was, the fact that the foreign course was targetted due to a surfeit of nationalistic (in this case Oriya nationalism) fervour is undeniable. The man thinks it was racist - that is pretty much the definition of racism - or how it is applied in the western world - where the peoples crying racism are often desis. I do not see in your article any condemnation of the attack or sympathy for Chappell. Only another chance at having a go at him. You obviously have something against this man - but even that should not put him beyond your sympathy.

Mukul, it may not be very fair to say Yuvraj does not deserve a place in the test arena. We all
know for sure the likes of Sachin, Dravid, Lakshman, Ganguly are very rarely found. They are
all great batsmen in their own right and have been at some point or the other the stalwarts of
an Indian overseas win. But, they are not going to be around for ever.

Subtract them from the current pool of available batting talents and you cannot find many
such flamboyant stars in the making. The willow should talk is what I believe in, for
a batsman. Yuvraj is one such batsman who has proved at international level he can
handle pressure well and how very well.

Test cricket is at times like university. A student who excels in high school deserves
a good degree from a university of repute. If he feels he never has a good
chance of making it to a university he will not do well in school.
We cannot afford to ruin Yuvraj's form in one dayers or lose him altogether.
He needs a fair run in the tests. We must not forget its a mind game, this Cricket.

Coming to batting order. one down is a position which if you look across the top teams
belongs to the one solid batsman who can seed in the anchor, build a dam or ensure we do not get
more cracks in the dam. This position is by default tailor made for Dravid first than Lakshman.
I do not mean to raise eyebrows on Lakshman's fluidity but he is not as solid.
Asking Dravid to come after Sachin and Lakshman would become an outright example of
one of the following:
1. Trying to build Rome at a time the enemy is at the backyard already i.e. the
opposition has already run through our top order pretty quick.
2. Or building a dam against a dam. We are looking to declare and you want Dravid
to score runs fast before that. Where Lakshman's fluidity would be just awesome.

I feel the probability of a disaster happening is a little more when Lakshman is one down
than Dravid. We can though, promote Lakshman depending on the teams requirements.
Its unfortunate that Lakshman is at the end of this "flexibility" thing but I think it would be in the team's best interests.

Some reasoned comments amidst the utter garbage offered by most commenters (and the writer sorry).
Why is Chappell not allowed to say what he felt about the incident? He is raising a valid point - witness the idiocy of the Indian cricket establishment regarding the Monkey taunts of Symonds (they were worshipping the monkey god I'm sure). It's amazing that people actually see this as some sort of plan to damage Indian cricket (or even better an Australian conspiracy), get over yourselves. If the Indian cricket team was actually any good maybe you can try that argument.

Just on the comment above from "ubaid" surely you are not serious - that is one of the stupidest things I have seen written about Australia. We have racists in Australia (as do all countries) but to suggest it is prevalent in society is absolutely false.

What does it matter what Greg Chappell says anyway? There is a reason why he does not coach in Australia - work it out.

I knew Indian cricket was going down the wrong path the very moment I came to know that it was coming under the auspices of a man who engineered "one of the worst things ever seen on a cricket field"... Yes, I am talking about the under-arm ball that Greg Chappell asked his brother Trevor Chappell to bowl during an ODI match against NZ to make sure the batsman does not score 6 off the last ball to tie the match!

For all those who are wondering why quotes... behold! I just quoted Richie Benaud (an Aussie, and a cricketing great!) to describe the disgraceful incident.

Its not that Chappell didn't want what's right for the Indian team, its that the man was clueless in how to go about getting it done. He was an unmitigated disaster at managing the players and situations surrounding them because he had no tact and no people skills required to accomplish his job. It is not enough to have great ideas that he supposedly wowed the board with before taking the job and getting paid a boat load of money - implicit in which was the requirement to handle the undeniable nonsense and politics surrounding the board and the players in India. That part of the job was never a secret or an unknown to him or anyone else interested in that role at the time he was picked. So, for all you Chappell supporters who keep harping on how the Indians were not "ready" to "accept" the philosophies of this great white guru... just shut it! He just plain sucked at the fundamental qualities of a good leader.. effective communication and an ability to handle different personalities differently. His approach was always "my way or high way" and it was he who had to hit the road after a disastrous tenure. You are judged by your record as a coach, and the proof is in India's performance under his guidance. All this nonsense from him is just a smug, disgruntled ego craving for more attention. India is clearly better of without him and nobody in India will miss him if he just goes away and never be heard from again.

Just my input:
Chappell was a great player, but a fan of discipline, it's been well documented that the players resisted him. As for their status of world cup contenders -it's laughable. Their average age is in the thirties, and with the hectic schedule of the world cup, where high pressure, must win matches can be seperated by a day or two, youth (or at least prime physical fitness) is a key ingredient in winning, and it does seem that most of the Indian team have a fitness regime more akin to Shane Warne than someone like Matthew Hayden.
But even if we assume Chappell is incompetant, neurotic or just plain insane, there is no way known that he can be the only reason India's form has slumped. He wasn't the one dropping catches, getting bowled or tossing up pies.
Personally, I don't think Chappell would be a great coach, but how great a coach do you need to beat bangladesh?
Chappell might deserve some of the blame, some may say even most of the blame, but it's the guys out there in the middle who got beaten. They underperformed, then blamed someone else. A coach really has little to do on match day. Everything from field placings to batting order is usually handled by the captain, yet Dravid seems to be held blameless.
Fact is that the current Indian team has many players cashing in on past glories. They will be lucky to do any better against Australia than Sri Lanka are doing at the moment.

According to a recent report, in the camp organized by Greg Chappel; 13/14 year old boys are being given lessons in rock climbing and commondo training, in the hope that they will develop self esteem and long muscles. This is the madness of Greg Chappel blooming now in deserts of the Rajastahan. Lets forget the race issue and realize that this guy is plain incompetent as coach. His philosphy of coaching is deeply flawed and thats where he failed primarily.

Being Indian myself i can say that this article is typical of the cynical way in which Indians refuse to accept the blame for anything.
Every Indian administrator wants every finger in every pie he can lay his hands on. Greg Chappel might have created a young and vibrant team today, but the dinosaurs would not lie down and die. And who gets the blame and the punch?
I am glad he packed his bags and left.

To me it's quite incredible that the man who put us out of the World Cup - continues to be acclaimed for his "dream comeback". Ganguly's pathetic 65 in 130 balls against Bangladesh effectively put India out of the World Cup. Instead we are quick to point our fingers at anything external - Greg in this case. Is Ganguly a genius to have most of us completely fooled for so long or are we just hopeless fools.

Aren't the facts of this story wrong? Greg's complaint about racism related not to the attack itself which he accepted as simply an idiot hitting him but to the Board's response to the attack. He pointed out that if a player was hit there would have been a big fuss made by the board but with him the board played it down even suggesting he was only 'pushed' when in fact he was punched. His letter suggested the board would have taken more action if it had been one of the players and he thought that by sweeping the incident under the carpet it could be seen as racist. By the way why has everyone turned down the Indian coaching job? Is it because the Board of Control is run by men so out of touch that they would appoint Kumble as captain rather than Dhoni and keep picking players past their prime and I don't mean Sachin, you never, ever drop a great player but why Sehwag, why Zaheer, why Harbijhan, why Ganguly (unless the pitch is dead and flat) and why does Arjit keep popping up? - surely India with millions of young cricketers has better players than them.

Now "Guru" greg (that's a huge insult to the word Guru) is saying "we need athletes" who can play cricket. He wanted young limbs that could .... etc etc. What about batting and bowling? I thought that was kinda important?

The words "lab" and "guinea pigs" come to mind when I read about whats happening in Rajasthan Hope the kids wil also learn some basic cricket skills and not simply becomes candidates to appear in shows like "fear factor".

And there's a good point in one of the comments as to why nobody in Australia seems to want chappel - in fact after being politely shown the door, and after dropping a whole load of innuendo about lots of folks on the Indian team ("selfishness" etc), this guy apparently called up BCCI asking then about the "position at NCA that he was to be offered". and the end of it all the joker talks about racist attacks. (Conveniently forgetting about the damned middle finger too).

This guy is amazing - so are the people that hire him.

Mr Raghuvansh, please read the comment that you wrote in your first blog " Nobody did monkey chants when whole teams of black men from the Caribbean, Kenya and Zimbabwe made the rounds of our stadiums because these men knew what to say and how to say it. To Symo's credit, my respect for him has gone up a thousandfold for the quiet and efficient way in which he handled the whole issue after it happened, but if he didn't want to cop it in the first place, he should have done some groundwork on how to behave to keep the Indian fans happy. " So if someone does not say something which you agree with, is it right to taunst him with monkey chants? You have clearly written in your blog that because Mr. Symonds did not say what the Indian public wanted to hear, hence he was subjected to such chants. So if any Indian cricketer says something which spectators in England, Australia or South Africs, do no like then is it all right for them to abuse that Indian player? And with regards to the comments made on Murali, i would appreciate if you keep yourself abreast of the latest in the cricketing world. Mr. Murali himself reported that he was subject to "racist" abuse in Australia, because someone had called him a "chucker" on the street of Adelaide. Now, why should this be construed as racist, if the attack on Chappell was considered an act of a deranged man? Mr. Raghuvansh i have been working in India for the past 3 years and i have seen instances of casteism and skin bigotry very much at my own workplace. I have heard people being referred as blackies by the people from the north and have also seen the discrimination that takes place towards people from the eastern part of the country. My job takes me to places in india whcih are neither remote nor untouched, but cities like jaipur, lucknow etc. And i am sorry to say i have seen people of "lower caste" being treated as garbage. And i am shocked when you brush this issue by saying that its all over. I guess it may be all over in your mind but not in the country. And i have also seen the work ethics of the majority of the people at the work place. Barring a few, most of the others rely on making excuses, trying to figure out how to make fast bucks, trying to short circuit the process. I have seen very few instances of dedication towards work and the desire to work hard to achieve results. And in some of the sectors of the Indian industry productivity is among the lowest in the world, and hardly any efforts have been made by the powers to be to improve the productivity and the standard of living. So, if i see laziness and poor planning around, i will surely comment on it. But yes they will be taken as a statement from a bigot, because people like you want others to accept the way you work but not imrpove the way you work. Hence, when Chappell tried to put things into perspective by instilling team discipline, work ethics, it really did not settle too well with the so called "Gods of Indian cricket" and the followers of the "gods", hence chappell was maligned and called a bigot, a divisive force etc. And if you get your facts right Mr Raghuvanch it was the BCCI which leaked chappel's mail to the media and not chappel himself. But then looking through a single lens will result in looking at a single point of view only. Regarding the respect for "cultures", well i hardly see any respect being shown by the commentators in the blog on the western "culture", which most of the bloggers have painted racist and all westerners as bigot. I think before you comment on others embracing your "culture", i would suggest that take a good look within and see whether you do the same. Atleast from the comments in the blogs,it looks like most of the bloggers dont share the perspective of respecting other "cultures". And your last point of "respect" in war practised in India. I would suggest to re read your history, and you will find the tactics of mental disintegration very much a part of the Indian war culture. I would like to quote an example from one of the Indian epics "mahabrata", wherein one of the pandave prince taunted and called his kaurava rival names after having felled him in the battlefield or where a young pandava prince was surrounded and killed by the kaurava army after being taunted and made fun off. So, when you do write something it would be wise if you can substantiate the point. And with regards to Darrel Hair, if you had known your states then you would have also known that he had a 98% accuracy record, the highest for any international umpire, at the time when he was banned. So if he called Murali, he is considered racist, but if holier than thou sub -continent cricketers question Lee, it is not considered racist. Now, why is that so? as i said earlier if you look through a single lens, you will always get a one sided view.

anand's absolutely right. There are only a few readers who seem to have seen thru Ganguly and how pathetically selfish he's been . If he'd scored another 20 runs in the World Cup match, who knows India may have won the WC and Chappell would have been acclaimed as a great coach, which in my opinion he is anyway.

To Mr my name is not relevant you wrote somehing interesting -"..but those who really bother me ad naseum are usually those 20-35% long posts kinds who usually lose the plot after the first para but they try super hard to be guha, friedman, adam smith, milton, wisden and common sense all rolled into one. Sweeping generalizations a la Naipual, long discourses on the Indian caste system, the intricate workings of Chappels or Andrew Symonds or xyz mind, sincerely hoping someone gets impressed or acknowledges them their writing."....Why did you not apply the same to yourself? I completely lost track of the point of the post and what you wanted to say. An Advise- "Next time walk the talk "...A better name for you is "mypostis irrelevant"

anand's comment is a valid one. Why do we put up with selfish people like Ganguly. Why can't ppl like Kesavan see this .

When Chappel said , just before the World Cup, that India has the squad that Indians wanted, it's clear as daylight that he wasn't happy with the team he was given (in particular Ganguly). So how can you blame the coach if the team goes out of the WC because of Ganguly's selfish 65. Chappell was right all through and we just haven't seen it yet.

Anand, we're hopeless fools. No doubt. Only you and Rohan Shastry and a few others are bright enough to know that Ganguly is just playing for himself.

Mukul, why do you spend so much time deciphering Chappell. One only does this is if one has an inferiority complex and is desperate to find fault no matter what.

I want to mention not only Greg's Coaching but I will speak on ustralian coaches globally. Can you show any Australian coach succeeded in getting any team closer to Australian standards, Take the example of West Indies, it has gone from Bad to worse under Australian coach. Actually if you closely watch you will find by employing these coaches the gap between Australia & other teams are increasing. Look at Sri Lanka under Bayliss SL are getting thrashed & Murali becoming non effective. I feel this is because by getting closer to such wonderful cricketers they get come to know the weaknesses better & pass on tips to Aussie think tank how to counter it. You may remember under John Wright India was almost close to winning the series in Australia during last trip. Tom Moody gave up the SL Job & must have passed on to OZ all inside tips to counter SL. You will observe that Australian commentators will be on the Air of the visiting teams commentary box & watch closely & pass on tips. Can you imagine an Indian commentator in the Aus TV Network prior to India's visit there. It is impossible, you can't find one whereas you will find them in Indian TV Nework in the current series against Pakistan. This is Australian way. They will find every possible way to get competitors weaknesses whereas nobody will be allowed to find theirs before a series. This is the way gap increases. Only Srilankan born Aussie coach of SL delivered all else failed.Actually I feel Greg Chappel should be thrown out of Rajasthan Cricket Academy & some body else should be found quickly enough before further damage is done. No talent will be unearth from there. Can you see any improvement in Rajasthan Ranji Performance instead it has gone down. This is a clear example, what he can do! Regards Tel No: 09840274001

Kesavan, are you so blind that you still think Greg is at fault more than Ganguly, who as anand as rightly pointed out was the main cause of India's exit

God save the country if the "best sports writers" in India are supposed to be people like Mukul Kesavan and Guha. Some of the readers like anand seem to have better brains than the writer himself

Nevermind what you wrote up there, Mukul, and nevermind what people wrote beneath it.

All I gotta say is: I agree with you Mukul!!!!!
Wonderful writing, Mukul!!!
Ever try some jibberish and get the same response from the same people?

Greg should realize that he was attacked because of his mismanagement of a good team, not because he is white.

It was really ridiculous on Chapell's part to call that a racist attack. How could he know that. He did not know the man and Chapell would have hardly given him a look before the security people captured him. He could not know his intensions in such a brief meeting.I agree that racism persists in India, but it's of a different kind.Yes, we can be called racists, but for a different reason. We can be called racists not because we hate the whites, but because most of us admire them, because we try to imitate them. We crave for fair skin, we imitate their fashion. A loony vulgur english song seems to us better then a good hindi song. I admit i don't know exctly what those spectators meant by the monkey chants(surely they weren't praying lord Hanuman, it's ridiculuos to say that), i ,like most of the Indians think and hope that it wasn't what it is taken to be.
The vision of Greg Chapell was good, infact excellent. But his approach and his attitude was wrong. He came with the thought that Indians and Indian cricket was something degradable and highly contemptible, and he was some sort of divine power who will completely change it(Indian cricket) at his will. He has shown his disrespect for the country and its values so often. He didn't get mixed up with the players. Instead of making full use of the experience in the team, he started criticising seniors and discouraging them.
Instead of jabbering in media, he should have talked to the seniors and explain them what he needed from them.Any team should not be divided on the basis of age, but on performance.

One more thing:Nowadays,there's a lot of talk about ousting seniors and persisting with young players. The hype has increased after T20 win.
But if u look at recent performance of the team in one dayers, especially those held outside India, had it not been the seniors, the team would be struggling to play 50 overs. The enthusiasm and attitude are good, but the most basic thing is the cricketing skills. These pros know how to play in the conditions other than those of subcontinents. Thus there should always be a mix of juniors and seniors in the team. Youngsters may be agile in the field and highly spirited, but skills, experience and patience is also necessary in longer formats of the game.

Ever heard of something called Divide and Rule ? "Intellectual" people like anand and his followers who hardly follow cricket but dont resist giving "GYAN" based on a one odd match that they have seen are victims of that.

Calling Ganguly, who made so many sacrifices as captain, fighting with opposing teams players for the sake of his own team members without caring about wether he would be banned or not, losing away his match fees so many times so that India could win, promoting Sehwag up the order and giving away his most favourite spot for the best of the team. Would that Chappell have done any of this ?

Qouting that one match is indeed really unfortunate, because if Ganguly was slow, why could not the others accelerate after he left ? It was some very good bowling on a slow pitch by Bangladesh, who played extremely well that day.

I suggest people like Anand and his followers follow some international cricket as well apart from the odd world cup matches, instead of giving rubbish responses like these.

As for you Prashant, I am really happy that we have good sports writers like these instead of people like Anand who dont know a bit about cricket but unfortunately cant keep their mouth shut.

Unfortunately, Indian cricket fans are so caught up in their idol worship of their cricketers that they are unable to see their numerous shortcomings. Indian cricketers are over-paid and over-hyped mega-stars who rarely perform under pressure or are able to complete with tough sides. How come India could not defeat Australia in the recent home one-day series? There was no foreign coach for you to blame! Now what are you going to complain about?

Muralitharan recently called Shane warne " a miserable man ". Actually that would fit Greg Chappell perfectly. He was nothing but a disruptive influence on all & sundry. Indian Cricket actually went back a couple of years when it ought to have gone forward. And great players like V.V.Laxman and Anil Kumble were treated so badly that such a majestic player like Laxman is nowadays always on trial when he should be bracketed with Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.

Mr. KK Mukherjee has finally broken the code which was more challenging and complex than the DaVinci Code. He has found out the secret of the Australian success in cricket and its all attributed to cricket espionage. The Australian Secret service has been on overdrive to take plum coaching positions in countries like WI, SL, India and then pass on the secrets to the Aussie hedaquarters. This is turn helps the Aussie HQ in preparing its team to understand the weakness of their opponent and to cash on the "insider" tips. Also, the secret agents of the ASS(Australian Secret Service)ensure that they play divisive politics in their country of posting and unravel the thread of cricket in those countries.
However, as a CIA agent KK Mukherjee is unable to explain the losses that WI suffers against every country,and the performance of SL under Tom Moody. Also, he is quick to attribute Rajasthan's dismal ranji showing to coincide with the appointment of Chappell as the chairman of the RCA. However, he did not consider the fact that while the players playing for Rajasthan are 20 and above those in the Academy are 12-13 year old kids. But then as per the espionage report that Mr. KK got from his confedential sources, the blame is to be laid on Chappel's shoulder.
With all due respect, Mr KK, I find your understanding of the game pretty poor and i think that you have spent quite a lot of time reading espionage novels or watching espionage TV shows. However, you are qualified to make a career as a spook and ASS (Australian Secret Service)may need some volunteers. So please apply for the post before the "No Vacancy" sign is hung on the door of your future employers - the ASS.

abhinav, a) can you please mention the sacrifices that he made as captain. If he was such a sacrificing character, he would have given up his place for Yuvraj and Kaif when they were in form during the Zimbabwe tour b) are you really naive enough to think that he gave up his match fees for India.Nothing can be more ridiculous c) well he did give up his position in the batting order to Sehwag, but isn't that because he is afraid of facing fast bowlers as the infamous Shane Bond over might remind you d) the others couldn't accelerate after he was dismissed because by then they had too much to do and had to throw away their wickets because things got increasingly desperate.
I for one, really wish that our cricket writers had half the instincts and logic of people like Prashant and Anand.

To abhinav, it's quite revealing that when you are on the defensive and somebody's attacking Ganguly's performance (who you are obviously a fan of), you forget to make the oft-quoted point that India lost because of Chappel and instead blame it on Bangladesh's "good" performance

Mr. Kesavan and other readers, if you can give an answer to Brian Morgan's question, I would appreciate you more for it than anything you've written.

dave, you arre right. We are a bunch of self-important, lazy, hypocrites. So, why dont you take Mr Chappell back and make him the coach of NSW or Queensland or whatever?
Oh! But I know, even a club team in melbourne would have a better coach than Greg, isnt it?
I wish Aussies give Greg a coaching job, then he can experiment by making Stuart MacGill come in at #3 and Ricky Ponting bowling first change. And probably, he can also reduce the cricketing distance betweeen Australia and the rest of the Cricketing world - oh! But I dream, only foolish Indians will give Greg a job, isnt it?

Brian Morgan, Easy. Thats because Aussies are a infinitely better Cricketing team than India. Yet, we won two matches - face it, India is the only team currently in International Cricket that can even dream of beating Aussies more often than others do. You know why? Not because of our system, thats a chaos. Not because of our coaching or infrastructure - because thats a joke. It's because we have enormous amounts of talent - and because of some special cricketers that we have. We respect them because they perform inspite of the system unlike Aussies who perform because of the system. Its like the individual cricketers swim against the tide whereas Aussie cricketers swim with the tide. So, thats why we celebrate the cricketers and you celeberate the tide (i.e) your system. To put it better, we cannot celebrate our system because it is actually a fetter - therefore, anyone who even briefly comes up with a special performance is to be celebrated because he has beaten the system.
Understand?

And oh! Brian, the problem with Chappell was not that he led us to losing to Australia but that he led us to losing to Bangladesh. As you can see, we only lose to Australia now-a-days. Reason enough for us to celebrate that Greg isnt our coach, isnt it? BTW, I repeat the offer, if you think Greg is this great coach whom we Indians have insulted and failed, then please, please lobby for him to be made the coach of Australia.Please, I promise, Indians(and Englishmen, and South africans and Sri lankans and Paksitanis) will fete you if you can get that done :-)

hey! Arun, does that answer your question?

Dave, and what a selective quote of facts!
Murali didnt shout racism becausee an odd Aussie in the street called him a Chucker, it was because a systematic effort was made to defame him - Remembeer, a certainl bloke named Howard also joined the mob(was it Howard, that PM who called Murali a chucker?).
For you to ignore that and compare Chappell's case to Murali by saying that "Chap Slapped Chappell in Orissa, Chap called Murali a chucker in Melborune - so it squares" - this is a dishonest effort from you - Get it right, Murali was abused by Aussies wherever he went and even the PM joined the chorus(how shameful was that), whereas Chappell wasnt persoanlly targetted - au contraire, a good part of Indian media defended him - except for a deranged orissa fan. It was, on the other hand, Chappell who showed the middle finger to an Indian Crowd - whatever the provocation, that can be taken as an obnoxious attitude that doesnt befit a man of high stature(or may be I am wrong in attributing stature to Chappell).
Dare you acknowledge the truth, Dave, my friend? yes, we have our untoucability problems but for you to hide your countryman's obvious double-speak beneath that is not done. I acknowledge here that yes, Indians have their own problems with Caste and other inequalities - okay, I said that - but atleast, we are trying to address that - you are just seeing things as they are today and saying things are bad. But you have to really know how bad it was before to acknowledge how better it is today. In the last 60 years, a decent progress has been made - we still have a long way to go but just dont hide behind that "ypu guys are guilty, too" shit. We arer confronting our demons - why dont you confront yours, instead of doing these pathetic excuses?
Answer the points I have raised in this post, if you dare to confront your bias - if you come back with something like "You dont make sense, I wont answer your charges", i will be disappointed but n ot surprised but in many a blog, I have encountered only such responses to such crystal-clear arguments - I have never met, dsicussed with an aussie who acknowledged the bias in them when pointed out with examples as above. I am sure there arer many Aussies who would be non-racist and rational, but unfortunately, I havent seen them in these blogs.

yuvi is out so u must be very happy. lets see whats laxman and his sena does?

Obviously Mr Dave is working as a a bureaucrat in the Indian government , or just plain lying and fabricating stories and working in one of the fast food joints in Sydney.I aks him to name where and for whom he works for here? The truth of the matter is Indian private sector is one of the fastest growing in the world , and so many companies would not set up shop here and outsource work if Indians were lazy , stupid , unproductive , divided and making excuses like Dave suggests.We have close to double digit growth rates in IT,manufacturing etc.., and this too without much foreign help or foreign management , so i ask him to please consult the facts before making such sweeping generalisations. Many
foreign students actually take training and internship at many of the IT and electronic companies in Bangalore , Hyderabad and Pune and they wouldnt do that if Indians were racist , unprofessional and lazy would they?Educated Indians settled in U.S are among the highest income bracket.As Far as the relentless caste system nonsense that is spewed by the Australians and the Englishmen here , i would ask them to kindly check the facts as they stand now.Discrimination and intimidation of lower caste people is a punishable crime , and lower caste people get privileges in education and employment in government sectors, sometimes as much as 30%.People actually fight to be included in the scheduled castes list , so they can get more privileges and respect, as was demonstrated recently in some riots in Rajasthan.People in India nowadays actually have regional bias than caste bias , which cannot really be construed as racism.I suggest all Australian readers to stop reading from rumour mongering sites defaming India and actually visit India and see for themselves . As far as cricketers being revered as gods is concerned, its just a fan following akin with Beckham in England or Ronaldo in Brazil.If anything a good performance usually goes unnoticed (unless its a T20 world cup), but a bad performance is severally criticised.Most religions dont treat gods this way .

Excellent rhetoric Mukul. Maybe you could just look up "Guru Greg's" mail id & send this piece to him.

Michael Atherton criticized Sreesanth for his over-the -top boorishness. Nothing physical, just a bit of criticism .And what conclusion did Kesavan draw? Racialism???? Chappel gets punched hard on his jaw....no verbal joust... pure assault...what conclusions does Kesavan draw??
Go figure that out...

This post just gets funnier and funnier!! Apart from a few intelligent posts from the likes of ramgopal, anoop, bob & raghuvansh, I have seen the following gems of stupidity;

1)"No Mat, Australians, Canadians, English, Americans do not burn effigies, they just simply sledge or shoot people outside the pavilions. Its less noticeable" - Pandit Krishna Narayan Haksar (what ARE you talking about?? I once saw a fight outside the SCG....that's about as bad as it gets)

2)But yes, what happened with Symonds was probably wrong, but not again racism - Subhasish (life must be interesting on your planet)

3)"..rather he (Symonds) said that he wanted to hear the dreadful silence of the Indian fans in the stadium, and then he will know that his team is winning – sadistic to the core isn’t it" - Karthik (Um....no...that's not sadistic you genius, it's a well-known sporting fact that home supporters go quiet when their team is losing...same all around the world in any sport. It just means Symonds would then know the Aussie team was on top. I suggest you stick to watching Star Wars & Rocky DVD's that seem to make up the core of your life experiences)

4)Cotrast this with his own country's team in world cup - average age of the team was well over 27 with old coots like hayden and gilchrist well over 36, while the oldest members in the indian team at the time of world cup was tendulkar / ganguly both 34!- NATARAJAN TANJORE (you guys keep missing our point: Hayden & Gilchrist are world class....they work hard, they play with pride & determination and, most importantly, they still deliver match-winning performances....eg. World Cup!)

5)"Great Steve waugh visited udyan in Calcutta while ganguly was at the helm of affairs just to mentally rub him in - look i am doing some charity in your town, and pray how many times waugh came after ganguly went off?" - Another gem from NATARAJAN TANJORE, who obviously doesn't know that Steve Waugh is a great patron to a worthy charity in Udayan, but is currently looking after his seriously ill wife.

6)"How can Aussies ever complain about racism? Aren't they who invented racism? Also they are the ones who invented sledging?" - Navin Shah (This one is my favourite...the ignorance speaks for itself)

I think Ivan summed it up best when he wrote "Chappell was punched simply because he was Greg Chappell".

I'll go back to my original point. The Indian team is not good enough at the moment. Your guys get paid to be professionals but don't train, behave or play like professionals. You could have a panel of the finest cricketing brains manage the team, but unless your players pull their fingers out, you'll remain a team of stars but not a star team.

If you want to see how hard a guy has to work to be successful I can recommend Steve Waugh's autobiography. He struggled with poor form, in a poorly-performing team early on, had several serious injuries, yet was still captaining a winning team into his late-30's. Never once did he back down from a challenge & never once did he act like a primadona. Ganguly could learn a thing or two.

Raj i can see you are very passionate, but cool down please. You can't say that we don't lose to Bangladesh anymore, just because we haven't played them since the World Cup. If the selectors had half the brains that Chappel does theuy would have thrown out Ganguly, he wouldn't have wasted 130 balls, India would have won the match against Bangladesh and who knows, maybe the WC too. Anoop is right, ppl like you are just too thick to appreciate quality when they see it.

Comments of Greg Chappell:
"Now you get an idea of what it's like to work in f...ing India"
at http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,23663,22795912-5007183,00.html

Someone please show this man out of the country and lets resolve never to bring his name into conversation again.

Do you know what this guy is trying to affect? He is the saint who is willing to live and work with philistines to bring civilisation to them.

Wake up India! We dont need any additional external toxins, we have enough home-grown variety of that already.

The west would love to slot us back to that old image of India. Please please tell me you hate that as much as I do.

Mr. Rahul, its a pleasure to see that you are completely out of touch with reality. Double digit growth in Mnaufacturing in India? Please check your facts on the national economic website and you will get to know that its still single digit Whats the growth rate in agriculture which employs 70% of the indian population? Do a double check and you will see that its single digit with poor investments which should be a cause of concern, but people like you keep harping on IT growth. With regards to IT, can you name one single companny which is a leader in product innovation and development? None. All of them are in IT services and system maintenance- basically outsourced work. With regards to investment in India in terms of outsourcing, the single biggest reason for that phenomenon is cheap labour --and nothing else. Its cheaper to hire 3 resources in India compared to a single resource in the west. And thats exactly whats happenning, the no. of people required to do the same job in India is almost 2.5 times the resources required in the west, but then these resources are way cheaper than the resources in the west and hence the investments. Also, if you understand economics which i am sure you do not, highly productive labour force is also the most costly. So if labour is cheap then that means the labour force is not as productive as it should be. And india is among the most cheap labour force available. Also do a favour to yurself, compare the productivity of the indian labour force with the labour force in the west and if you have any sembelance of a brain you will be able to conslude the obvious. Are you saying that if foreigners are coming to India and getting trained then indians are not racist? Now, should the same logic not hold for the West, where i assume that indians go and settle in hordes it is so because there is no racism? Surprisingly, no one on the post actually seconds your logic. And by the way Indians settled in the US are among the highest earning bracket because they are in the US - a country with an administration and system - far more productive than India. And again, i would like to point out that the effecient system was made by the west and not the indians. They are able to work in that effecient system and become reach. And i hope you have heard of "brain drain", the phenomena which stills effects india. Surprisingly,we in west do not face this issue. Why is it that Indians need to migrate to other countries to earn money? And is India not the country where there was widespread protest against increasing the representation of the underprivileged in the educational institution? Why is that so? And why should people be fighting with each other to be included in a particular cast? I think that can happen only if a certain caste is given privilige or is discriminated against. And is it not in your states that politicians use caste discrimination as a major election issue? So how come you say that anyone who says caste system is prevalent in India is defaming India? I think its the old indian habit of not looking at the issues but running away from it. Mr Rahul, i think you do not have any understanding about your country and it will do you good if you can form you own views by doing some research rather than writing down views that you may have heard from others.

Mr Raj, i would like to point out that Murali did shout racism because an odd aussies called him a chucker on the street of Adelaide. And if you had read my post carefully, i had mentioned that murali said so at the start of the current series v. australia. And with regards to Howard calling Murali a chucker, i agree it was offensive being the head of state. And why dont you also get it right that chappel was abused wherever he went? Was he not abused by the calcutta crowd because the crowd was angry with him for dropping ganguly? And was it not the same crowd which cheered the saffers and jeered their own country just because Mr. Ganguly was not playing? Its really surprising how one turns a blind eye towards crowd behaviour. In fact any self respecting indian should have shown the middle finger to a crowd which supports a different country just because a player from their city or province was dropped form the cricket team. And may i ask you a question Mr. Raj,why do people of indian origin staying in the west, cry racism when they are beaten up by deranged individuals? I am sure you would also be among those who would shout "racism" on such acts. Why are they not taken as an attack on an individual rather than painting them as racist aka the attack on chappel. With regards to your view that India is beating everyone except for Australia after chappell's days, i would suggest that you have a re-look at your facts. You were beaten in the ODIs both by england and australia, and just about managed to beat pakistan. You have played only one test series of note post the world cup which you won helped by a huge slice of luck at Lords.Also, last not least at least the australian authorities have taken steps of monitoring the crowds at the stadiums using high surveillance cameras and have an eviction policy in place for anyone who makes racist taunts. Please contrast it with the attitude of the BCCI, who brushed it by saying that India has great cultural diversity,and brushed the issue under the cultural diveristy carpet. Cultural diversity could be an excuse used even by the australlian authorities - australia is home to people from italian, greece, chinese, indian, japanese, slavic countries, latin america,english a more profound diversity considering that each society has different customs,religion, etc - but they prefered to face the music and ensure that racist taunts are not tolerated.

The likes of raj, dave, Mat, Rohit etc. are giving highly biased and unfair comments. I can not understand why these guys have to post their comments without taking into consideration each others PoV.

I've been to India and Australia and the people there are not racist at all. Whatever India's caste problems may be, they are very good to foriegners;and the Aussies are really warm and friendly people. I think both these countries are being generalised as being racist just because of some individuals' acts.

Dear Jon,

I'm only biased because I'm right.

Mat, what I mean is that the Indian team is not in that bad a shape as you think it is. They are doing very well without a coach, you know. I mean, they did beat South Africa, England and won the T20. I agree with you on some of the comments by the Indian bloggers, which are also in bad taste. But do check your facts on the team's recent performances.

Bad article. Badly written, incohesive, unorganised. It does not appeal to simple readers. I did not enjoy reading this. Most of the paragraphs went over my head