Chappell way gets another chance

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Chappell way gets another chance

Pitched By Kerry Walker

Wednesday, 01 October 2008

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Rating 2.0/5 (1 vote)

Greg Chappell becoming the coach of the Indian team was an exciting event for me as I, like a fool, envisioned the possibilities of a sharp and revolutionary cricketing brain team up with the flair and genius of Indian cricket, to produce a cracker of a cricket team.

The "like a fool" part was not in thinking of Greg Chappell as a sharp and revolutionary cricketing brain, but in assuming that Indian cricket would let a foreigner come in and do his thing even if the attempt was to raise the standards of their (Indian) own game. Yes, we did hire him in the first place, but the natural assumption was that once hired, he would meekly follow instructions and butt-kiss like is usually done in Indian cricket.

What happened is history and the only thing I really regret in that entire situation is that we never knew whether Chappell's plan would work or not. He went to World Cup 2007 with a team that had no resemblance to his envisioned team, and typical of our system, we blamed him for the failure. The Gangulys, Tendulkars and Harbhajans came off, if not smelling of roses, at least with their places in the team intact.

Now, with Chappell taking over at the Australian center of excellence, I get another chance to see what his ideas are made up of, given the right people to execute them. There will be no lazy Sehwags, Harbhajans and Zaheers to scorn his ideas, and no has-beens, sticking on like they were stuck with glue to their slots in the team, to tie his hands just because they had "served the nation with distinction".

While the Gavaskars of the world will no doubt take a potshot or two in their newspaper columns on Chappell's new appointment, safely enclosed in positions where they have power without responsibility, Chappell has put himself in line once again in a position where his performance can be judged and evaluated. A great cricketer he undoubtedly was, Gavaskar still has to even attempt something after his retirement where someone can actually judge if there is any substance at all in that bag of hot air.

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