He has been a figure of controversy; he has been one of the most hated figures in India. Yes, I am talking about none other than Greg Chappell. His first controversial act came in the one-day international series between Australia and New Zealand. He asked his brother Trevor Chappell to bowl underarm along the ground. Though Australia won the match but Trevor Chappell could never overcome this incident. Many touted this act as unsportsmanlike behaviour. But Greg simply laughed it off saying he intends just one thing, to win matches.
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| Sachin Tendulkar & Greg Chappell |
He helped the Indian team put up an impressive show against Australia in the 2002-03 series Down Under in the role of a batting consultant. It was no wonder that he became BCCI’s best choice when John Wright decided to step down from Indian coach’s role. In May 2005 he became the coach of the Indian national team with much backing from the then captain Sourav Ganguly. But once he gained the position he went after Sourav Ganguly himself. He started the blame game on this great captain. During the first overseas tour of India in Zimbabwe he asked Sourav to step down as captain. This led to vast media criticism. But soon Greg had his say and Sourav Ganguly was dropped from the Indian team and Rahul Dravid became the new captain. What followed was the start of a dismal Greg Chappell era in Indian cricket. He tried to usher in new blood to the Indian team in the form of Robin Uthappa, Venugopal Rao, R.P. Singh, etc. But none of them can be seen in the Indian team anymore. Many experts feel he is also the reason for Irfan Pathan’s demise from a promising seam bowler. Greg wanted to make him an all-rounder and in the process made Irfan lose his form with the ball. Then came 2007 World Cup where Team India had a miserable outing losing to the minnows Bangladesh.
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| Rahul Dravid after India's Early Exit from World Cup 2007 |
All through his tenure as coach of India he was criticised by many players including Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh but they were dealt with harshly. Many cricket experts also suggested that Greg tried to run the team and always wanted the players to feel he was the headmaster. Thus players were largely unhappy with him. His obscene gestures at the Indian press made him a villain to the public eye. His sacking from the coach’s role brought a sigh of relief to the Indian cricketing world.
But his tendency of dropping bombs and creating controversies hasn’t gone it seems! In his recent book ‘Fierce Focus’ he has claimed that Sachin Tendulkar was mentally fragile and self doubted his skills when he took over as coach. According to him one day during his coaching stint Sachin came to him and had discussions for nearly two hours. He was worried about his loss of form and recovery from tennis elbow injury. Greg also said Sachin asked for his help. In another portion of the book Greg writes "When the team travelled, he would snap on his headphones, not look sideways, and shut it all out. Not even Don Bradman carried expectations like this, and Sachin had been bearing it since 1989". Though I would never want to be on the same bout as Greg Chappell but this is a very valid point. Throughout the 90’s Sachin Tendulkar was seen as the sole person who could win India matches. His departure from the batting crease would often signal the end of Indian resistance. But when we talk about Greg era there were many great players to share the burden. Rahul Dravid was in full flow then, there was Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh too. So why would Sachin complain to Greg at such a time.
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| His Controversial Conversation with Sourav Ganguly |
Greg also writes on “once we were talking ... and I said, 'You must have so many friends, it must be hard finding time to keep in touch with all of them'. He looked me in the eye and said, 'Greg, you would have more friends in India than I've got.” This is again a contradictory statement to what we know of Sachin. He is a social guy and enjoys his off season with his close friends, family and relatives.
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