Greg Chappell was left with little option. It was becoming a hopeless situation.
Woolmer(RIP), Whatmore and Moody were lesser players. Whatmore and Moody are having less stress and thank God they did not fall into the cauldron of Indian cricket. They should be counting their graces. Greg Chappell could have misjudged the psyche of the Indian team, media and cricket frenzy crowds.
We expect miracles from our heros who have feet of clay the moment they find themselves in unfamiliar territory - fast, seaming, and bouncy wickets. They are good only in our friendly made to order ones with 60000 people who work themselves to a frenzy. The visitors obviously cannot perform in our searing heat and dust. So we still have our chance.
For the future of Indian cricket, it does not matter who the players or the coaches are. It is more important whether we learn anything from these debacles.
Sri Lanka is very impressive with superstars like Murali and Jayasuriya contributing with others. Mind you, they were much lower ranked than India few years ago and has a population less than Kerala. I would dare say a second eleven Sri Lanka and of course Australia with eqaual population can easily defeat most of the teams in World Cup including India. Such is their talent. Whatever has happenned to ours. We cannot seem to have anybody to replace our ageing stars.
Let us stop the namecalling and look ahead.Let cool heads (if there are) take over rather than hot ones who come at you with arms swinging wildly if any suggestion, however politely is given that some people seem to be past their sell by date. Sometimes not bad, as these take the process of total detoxification. Bangla Desh has tasted Indian blood and I think they will go for our jugular in future. They look very hungry indeed.
Ponting was asked about the stataus of world cup as both "super stars" India & Pakistan were knocked out. His answer was cryptic - let us congratulate Bangla Desh and Ireland -India & Pakistan played badly and they deserved to lose.
If we do not take proper steps it can turn out to be like hockey. We were the top. Now we hear in the news -India lost to South Korea 0-2, earlier they lost to Malaysia by the same margin and hence they do not qualify for the next round. We continue with our breakfast without batting an eye lid. Emotions cannot solve the problems unless backed by solid actions.
