I am pleased that cricket greats share my views about this issue (If you remember my article "HAS CHAPPELL ACTUALLY DONE ANY GOOD??"). I completely agree with Mr.Gavaskar. Even though Chappell is one of the greatest cricketers and his intentions for the betterment of Indian cricket may have been good but at the end he failed miserably and ended up in dividing the team and made all the players lose direction. He clearly had no idea about the way the Indian cricket could have been improved. Australians are the best team at the present moment but the same methods do not work everywhere. A team of youngsters may be a good idea for an Australian team (though the most successful players aren't very young) but not for India. In Indian cricket the youngsters need to be introduced gradually and not just have a complete young team all together. It failed miserably and the experienced senior players (Laxman, Ganguly, Zaheer..) had to be called for and it worked!! Chappell had it all wrong all the way. Also the talk about all the politics and dominance of the senior players but that has always been there and it is under THEIR guidance and leadership that the youger players get better and this fact has been proven right time and again. I therefore think Cappells appointment as Indian coach was a huge mistake and has cost us dearly.
RE:Chappell responsible for downfall of Indian cricket
by Vimal Kumar on Apr 24, 2007 08:39 PM Permalink
Yes I remember your great article. As if Indians are fooled into reading biased anti-Chappell pro-Ganguly Bengali articles
RE:Chappell responsible for downfall of Indian cricket
by shiva on Apr 24, 2007 06:23 AM Permalink
The crux of the matter was we lost fair and square even to Bangla Desh. The team selected was about the best we could muster. If for some reason, Sachin or Ganguly did not play, many would believe that was the sole reason for Indian's loss.
Chappell cannot be blamed for the failure of India's "super stars". Many will come up with figures to show they are better than Chappell. We were not witness first hand at day to day problems and some reports based on which we assume things may only be figment of imagination of newspapers to get so called "scoops".
I believe, the main isuue is our poor record on fast and seaming pitches. We all saw how uncomfortable our players were. I found Sri Lankans are far superior in playng on these conditions. From a side which used to lose to Tamil Nadu regularly, how come they are far superior to us now. I think it is their attitude. Despite having some great players, they were comfortable with Whatmore. Some who were coached by him had much better statistics than him.
If we do not want people like Chappell, who is going to shoulder the responsibilty. Whatmore and Moody are far "inferior" to Chappell and of course to our super stars. Their shirts and what not will be ripped off within days as they will find India quite a different kettle of fish. They will stand fully exposed within days.
The crux of the matter is none of our former greats will step forward as they know it will be a thankless job. Frankly, with all respects I believe others have improved, while we still find scapegoats in a fruitless exercise. With Bangla Desh and Ireland coming up, sadly our days of glory (fleeting though it was) looks to be over.
