This is with reference Mr Swarup's article on India's world cup debacle. He has rightly pointed out the lack of fitness in our team as compared to other teams and certain other things. But I would like to dwell upon his views on Greg Chappell. %u201C%u2026.his thinking and approach about the game are correct, and given the right mandate, could be good for Indian cricket.%u201D What are Greg Chappell%u2019s views? %u201CPerform or perish%u201D;%u201D high fitness level%u201D; %u201Cemphasis on fielding%u201D; %u201Cflexibility%u201D; all very fine and every sane minded cricket follower would agree with his philosophy%u2026 but the more important thing is how do you implement it%u2026the process is important, no doubt, but the bottom line is that the results also should be there. Mr Rahul Swarup (RS) has mentioned team played outstanding cricket in 2005%u2026. but as he has also acknowledged it was below par if you consider the test matches.. particularly glaring was the drawn series against under strength England at home. Winning the ODI series in Pakistan was great as was the demolition of the Lankans at home. But did we really progress any further from there? Lost to West Indies%u2026played poorly in Malaysia%u2026.and in the ICC trophy in India it was very poor. Downhill journey continued in the South Africa tour where the so-called young and fit brigade just could not cope with the South African pace. RS has ignored these results completely. Why? Mr Chappell was very much in charge during this time%u2026 At the same time the media was running the Ganguly circus%u2026he was vilified at the beginning%u2026 was rightly stripped of his captaincy for his poor batting form%u2026but allegations like creating divisions in the team was really shocking and was hard to accept. But with jokers like Kiran More in his side and changing political situation within the Board, Greg Chappell seemed to have complete control over the proceeding and just could not think of giving a fair chance to Ganguly%u2026Rahul Dravid%u2019s role in this whole episode also remained very curious%u2026 Anyway, the massacre in the ODI series at South Africa brought back Ganguly and he did prove his utility in the team in the test series as well as in the subsequent ODI series against Windies and the Lankans..whereas the so called %u201Cmulti-dimensional player%u201D like Pathan gradually lost his form%u2026Chappell and his %u201Dbiomechanics%u201D in the team has succeeded to take away the %u201Cswing%u201D from his bowling which was so much important for India%u2019s success in recent past. As RS has pointed out that after the failure against Cronje%u2019s team India did progress in last five six years- reached World Cup finals, ICC Trophy finals twice (being joint winner with Srilanka once)- not always in the %u201Csubcontinent%u201D as was Chappell sarcastically mentioning in his latest press conference. What do we learn from this short history? Not necessarily we would have to follow the Australian methods strictly- the mental set up and approach towards the game are not same for the Australians and for a player in the subcontinent%u2026. We can have success with different methods also as has been shown by Wright-Ganguly combination in between%u2026...creating a permanent insecurity amongst the players in the name of %u2018perform or perish%u2019 may be successful in Australia but its unlikely to have the same result in the socioeconomic background in India where its difficult for simple first class players to earn a living from Cricket. Its not that it means players can%u2019t be omitted even if they don%u2019t perform but proper communication with the players is very important which I don%u2019t think Mr Chappell had with most of his players. John Wright would score much more in this respect. Second aspect is blooding young guns. Here again Greg Chappell has not really succeeded in blossoming talents like Suresh Raina, Piyush Chawla or Goutam Gambhir- he (and David) has given these young guns too much responsibility too early in their career- these talents could not really grow under their guidance. In the World cup Dinesh Karthik was not given a single chance though Robin Uthappa was not doing well. And RS don%u2019t get into this false sense of pride of having %u201Cplenty of young promising talent in batting and bowling, fit and agile players who, if given the right training and exposure, could be molded into a fighting and competitive unit in 3-5 months%u201D . Remember what Dilip Vengasarker said after watching the Duleep Trophy matches that there is no outstanding talent in the domestic circuit who can really put pressure on the current team (he is right)%u2026its not so easy Mr Swarup it takes time%u2026you need to have a proper system and competitive first class cricket which we don%u2019t have. On the other side the fielding of the team has worsened day-by-day %u2013 one just can%u2019t blame the seniors only for this- fitness level of players was poor for the whole team. The whole team looked disjointed and lackluster. Who is responsible for this? We may agree with the Mr Chappell%u2019 directions but his methods have not been successful so far%u2026he has not been able to understand player%u2019s mentality to bring the best out from them.
And more importantly I believe a coach is not so important for a team%u2019s success. Our media have given too much importance to him%u2026.. he was a great cricketer but that does not mean he can also be a coach of a very successful team.
