Wednesday, April 04, 2007
End Of Chappell Era
What follows this paragraph was intended to be an independent post. I wrote it and went to have a coffee. And on TV the news of Chappell’s resignation was breaking out. I was a bit perplexed by this development for a moment but soon it became clear to me that things were taking their expected course. So I thought I would let the post follow this intro.
I was almost certain that I would ignore the highly inflammatory rumors which appeared in some channels in the form of reports. So long as they retained the ‘from reliable sources’, the best one could do for Indian cricket was to keep quiet about it. But now that Sachin Tendulkar has come out in the open against Greg Chappell, India’s coach, my silence might be construed as my inability or unwillingness to respond to such unpalatable developments.
No body knows what Chappell is likely to include in his report to BCCI. You have only rumors to go by. Rumors, they are aplenty. All the channels had this issue as their staple diet for the last few days. Most of them talked about it as if they are handling a statement made by Chappell. But it is now clear that Chappell had something unpleasant to tell the Board about the senior players as betrayed by Tendulkar’s interview given to Times of India. He has expressed his hurt at the insinuation that the senior players had an attitude problem in no uncertain way. Chappell’s authoritarian style and his methodical divide and rule strategy etc are likely to the players’ main weapons in the no holds barred war against Chappell which is now in the open.
We don’t know what went within the four walls of the dressing room. So we will wait till the dirty linen is washed publicly. But we know one thing. India failed to enter the Super Eight because of the failure on the part of the players primarily. The coach also may be guilty in a technical way. But without attributing any motive to the players, you can say that it is their incompetence that caused the dismal performance. I admit no team would like to get trapped in such an agonizing position. Nor would any coach. Chappell obviously came to India with great dreams. To coach this Indian team to the World Cup win must have one of his dreams.
Then what caused this almost total parting of ways? Difference in perceptions? Or ego clashes? May be but the difference in approaches to achieve the same result might also be a reason. What Chappell wanted the team to do might not have been the ideal way for the players to get the same thing done. Taking into consideration the inter-relational structure in this case; Chappell seems to on the right side at least technically.
But that is not going to help matters a bit here. He has to go. Simply because no coach can hope to coach an Indian team after having got on the wrong side of such indispensable superstars like Tendulkar. By now it must have become clear to him. And he is not going to have any VIP friends either in India. Because of certain inherent reasons most of the former players are not interested in having a foreigner as India’s coach. None of the journalists would commit the foolishness of endorsing Chappell’s stand even if they believe him to be right simply because their reporting efficiency depends crucially on the co-operation of the major players. Which would be zero once they decide to move over to Chappell’s camp.
So without going into the arguments in this case which we are totally in the dark about, we can be sure that India is going to have another coach. And this Chappell also should know.
Tags: Chappell resigns
