Ha...Ha...Ha.......It is extremely funny to know that Shastri has the experience to put Indian Cricket back on track. He kept critisizing all the players and the coach sitting alongside Harsha , Sunil and Sidhu and I don't understand how he will gain the confidence of the players. First of all what Shastri acheived as a cricketer ? Bowling some lollipop spin bowling and batting like a snail scoring 50 of 100 balls !!! Even the legendary Kapil Dev could not do anything as a coach.
As I already quoted in another column, International Players don't need a coach to tell them what to do. They know better. It was Sourav who guided the right path to Indian Cricket for the past 5 years (before Chappell took over). John Wright , as he himself would accept , only played a role of a catalyst and motivator. I'm strictly against a coach taking the headmaster role and trying to instruct players what they should be doing. It's absolute bullshit. Not even college students listen to some one nowadays . It all should end within school level. How can you expect a more accomplished and extradinary genius like Sachin to listen to others and oblidge ???
The following are the mistakes done by Chappell during his tenure.
1. Demoting Sachin down the order when the whole world knows that he should be opening in the innings. Shastri himself told several times that the best batsman should get the full 50 overs to play !!!
2. Randomly changing the batting order of younsters like Kaif , Raina , Rao and successfully dented their confidence and forced the selectors to remove them from the squad. Kaif and Raina were winning matches for India in the lower order and once they were asked to bat at No 3 , No 4 they started to crack under unfamiliar batting positions. 3. Did not stick to the experiements he did. He attempted the experimentation of sending Dhoni and Pathan at No 3 , both of whom scored brillantly and won matches. But all of a sudden that stratergy was stopped when it mattered the most. (I think Dhoni batted up the order only against Bermuda). 4. Believed that only fielding abilities will win matches in ODI's. When Sri Lanka won the World Cup under Ranatunga, their first 6 top order players were over 30 and all of them fired. Today , the highest run scorer in this world cup so far is Matthew Hayden and he is 34 !!! Select team based on current performance . Age is not the criteria for selection. 5. Finally , anybody will agree that Chappell is a poor manager. His man mangement skills are truly under question that he could not tackle things without hurting the other person and that is not a leadership quality . If he is going to say that he will speak whatever he thinks straight infront of anybody's face he is never going to be successful even with the domestic (or schoolboy) cricketers because no human being likes to be critisized before others.
Shastri knew all these but still wanted to give credit to Chappell. Why ? Because he is a true leader. He knows what to speak and when. He knows that this is not the time to insult Chappell blaming his decisions and tactics. He just wanted to send off Chappell in a good note. Shastri , atleast you understand people better.....!!!
