The Two Towers

Compeletely forgot to write about the ongoing episode between Sourav Ganguly and Greg Chappel. Until now I have not given a serious thought about the matter as I thought such controversies were not uncommon in Indian cricket. But it is very uncommon to have a controversy with an outsider. The Prince of Kolkata not being among the runs since a year or so, getting frustrated with the pressure as a captain of Indian team which is the toughest job in cricketing world as he has to bat well, score runs, also bowl well, motivate the team , have a barrack of strategies against opponents, handle the media, be in the selection committee, and also maintain the committments at the personal level and involve in such controversies everytime. His duty was to bring the team out of the shackles of match fixing and lead from the front which he did so magnificently. He has brought the change that was lacking since a decade. In the last 4-5 years he was the champion of India. Though he did not make much difference in the scoreboard he did make a sea change in the thought process of the BCCI and the team. I would say the 2001 series against Australia has changed the face of Indian team and with victory at the Lord's in the final of Natwest Trophy emerged a team that could beat the invincibles. He was the leader in both cases. His contribution was not by scoring runs or by taking wickets but by motivation and character. In the 2001 series every player of the team contributed, with laxman's 271, dravid's 188, Bhajji's hatrick at koltaka, Sachin's century, Das's 50 I guess and bhajji's turbination at chennai. In the Natwest trophy Kaif and Yuvy reaching home showed that this Indian team has emerged out of the depression that was created when we lost 3-0 againt Australia in 2000 I guess followed by a humiliating defeat at home in the hands of South Africa. Such a change was brought about by him.

Let us talk about the Greg Chappel now. He is considered to be the best and shrewdest thinker of the game. With his book Greg Chappell on Coaching: The Making of Champions he earned the reputation across the globe. He is considered one of the all time best players to have palyed forAustralia. He scored 24 centuries in about 87 matches with an avg 53.84 ranked 18th in the all time list. He scored centuries in his first and last tests bringing him glory.I feel any batsman whose avg is above 50 could be considered as a great batsman.During his regime Australia were mighty with the palyers like Ian Chappel, Jeff Thompson,Walters, Edwards, Rodney Marsh,Dennis Lillee and he had to lead this young side agains the powerful English team that had Bob Willis, Tony Greig, Knott, Fletcher, Mike Denness ,Geoff Boycott, Gower. Greg was a big contributor to his team with him scoring centuries after centuries and saving australia from crutches so many times. However that was his past, at the present he has been involved in helping southwest australian team win the Sheffield Shield trophy. His excellent analysis of the game is itself bringing him ill reputation. Even before Australia lost the ashes he blasted John Buchanan and suggested he be dropped. Earlier in the Ind-Aus 2004 series he criticised Steve Waugh and of late as everyone knows he is involved in the controversy with the GANG.

With him suggesting Ganguly to step down as captain of the team shows that he has not been in good thinking these days as Ganguly just returned from a ban of 6 matches and had a gap in the test matches. How could he say such a thing as a spectator. Though it was Ganguly's mistake to take the dressing room matters to the media, Chappel should have kep from writing tp BCCI. A coach's job is to motivate the team and not criticise it. India has about a billion critics of each and every player. And if he had to say something he should have said it after watching Sourav play a series. He should realise that test is different from One days. He does not know importance of his job and the responsibilities that come with it. He needs to handle the Indian media and he has got to learn a lot. May be we could forgive him as he is new to the scenario, he better take some advise from John Wright. Writing a six page letter to BCCI saying Ganguly is mentally and physically unfit to play would bring him ill reputation. He does not understand the Indian team and the people. Here cricket is not a job it is a religion, he must understand that. With that letter he has shown his anger, I guess he will face the anger of a billion now and with Ganguly having the backing of the hevyweight jagmohan Dalmiya he might even be sacked. I suggest he should not return to india on the 25th sep rather go to Aus for a month and retrospect. Some countries would have destroyed his house by now, but this is India baby we are DVSK's. I think he would have said the same thing even about Sachin as Tendulkar was also not in good form. Hope he learns a lesson from this and would never say anything, varna Chappel ko chappal se maarenge, kyaaa?