The various replies to Gavaskar's article appear to be in bad taste. Never mind Gavaskar's qualifications (and one must try NOT to forget that he scored his runs against some of the best world class bowling), in his article, Sunil Gavaskar has merely pointed out some of the facts a) Indian cricket being on an upbeat mood when John Wright left, waiting to fight it out against Australia for the no. 1 rank in cricket and b) today's scenario where the team appears to be down in the dumps. Gavaskar has neither protected Tendulkar nor has he blamed any cricketer. He has merely stated the facts. It is also a fact that Greg Chappell's experiments with Irfan Pathan and others drew flak from many former 'greats' - Wasim Akram, Botham etc. These were Chappell's decision - apparently trying to run Indian cricket not like Zimbabwe but according to some other model which most of us failed to understand. The fact also remains, that whatever were Chappell's intentions, the score card at the end shows that his experiments failed - failed miserably actually. Added to that is also the fact, that instead of admitting with humility, that his experiments did not get the desired results, it was Greg Chapell who started pointing fingers through the media that the 'senior' players were behaving like 'Mafia'. Fact remains that whatever his credentials, Greg did not clik in India - and so Gavaskar has quite correctly questioned the reasonableness of offering the same person another job in this very sport in this very country. He has merely pointed out that Greg's record as a Coach is perhaps not one to be proud of - he has successfully reduced a strong Team India to its pathetic shadow in 2 yrs. Maybe the various people who have replied to Sunil Gavaskar's message will take the trouble to re-read his article for a better perspective.
