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Positives from Chappell's departure

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Improved pitches, paid selectors among others

Former captains suggest a cut in endorsements

Cricinfo staff

April 6, 2007


India's cricketers must cut down on their commercial dealings, the country's former captains have recommended to the Board of Control for Cricket in India while reviewing the team's World Cup debacle and suggesting ways to move forward.

Seven former Indian captains - Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Ravi Shastri, Kris Srikkanth, S Venkataraghavan and Chandu Borde - met the BCCI bigwigs and discussed a variety of issues. It is understood that there was no specific discussion on individual players, the performance of the team in the World Cup or the performance of Greg Chappell as coach. Instead, the captains, who had come to the meeting armed with a number of points, looked forward to what needed to be done to improve the health of Indian cricket in general.

One of the suggestions put forward was related to player endorsements, with the panel suggesting that the players take the board's permission before entering into a contract. They also added that a copy of the contract should be submitted to the BCCI in order to ensure that there is no clause therein related to performance-based incentives. Also, not more than two or three players must endorse a product other than those by BCCI sponsors, they felt.

"This was one of the most constructive meetings I have ever attended with the board," one of the captains told Cricinfo. "We discussed some crucial aspects, one of the key was strengthening junior cricket. I don't want to give too many specific details, but here's one example: Tiger Pataudi spoke of how players learned how to dive and anticipate in fielding when they were 15, and not 25, so more focus needed to be given to the quality of coaching, umpiring and wickets at that level, so that no aaltu-faltu cricketers come through to the highest level."

Here are the salient points discussed

Strengthening of domestic cricket to ensure the participation of international cricketers. The international calendar can be adjusted by 6-8 weeks to include these cricketers.

Improving wickets: The BCCI must ensure "sporting and lively wickets" which are prepared under the supervision of the pitches committee.

Players must take the board's permission before entering into an endorsement contract. A copy of the contract should be submitted to the BCCI in order to ensure that there is no clause therein related to performance-based incentives. Also, not more than two or three players must endorse a product other than those by BCCI sponsors.

The Ranji Trophy Elite group should be trimmed to 10 teams instead of the current 15 and the matches should be played on a round-robin league basis to improve the quality of domestic cricket

The selectors should be appointed on a full-time basis and with payment involved.

Greater care should be taken in the appointment of selectors to the junior selection committee.

The Indian team must have a pool of 30 cricketers who should be rotated so that no player plays more than 80 days in a year.

About bloody time.

If it actually happens and isn't pure talk, there'll be some hope yet for Indian Cricket.
 
And maybe less influence from the 'mafia'. Quite an insightful piece from Peter Lalor here.

Chappell takes on Little Master - and loses

  • <LI class=byline>Peter Lalor
  • April 07, 2007
DEPARTING India cricket coach Greg Chappell has been holed up in Mumbai's Taj Mahal hotel, a sanctuary with a long pool hidden in the gardens and the pictures of famous visitors lining its walls.

Chappell is seeing out his last days in India by travelling from his room to crisis meetings at nearby ****hede Stadium, where he will present a report on the team's World Cup. Indian cricket was always going to destroy Chappell. He is reported to have said he would resign after the World Cup whether he won or lost. He argued that if the latter happened, he would be forced out. If India won, the job would become unbearable because the senior players' position would be further strengthened.
Not even the third umpire can establish whether Chappell was pushed or jumped, but the most extraordinary thing was not that he fell victim to the blood-letting, but rather that it was Sachin Tendulkar who delivered the final blow.
The Little Master is reserved and religious, more Mahatma Gandhi than Machiavelli, but when he spoke out against the Australian, the cricket world took notice. It was a sign of just how bad things had become.
Three years ago, Chappell's predecessor, John Wright, stayed at the Taj as his tenure as India coach came to an end. Over beer at Tendulkar's nearby bar, the New Zealander regaled a group of journalists with tall tales about his time in the job.
The political intrigues and constant infighting would have broken a lesser man but the former Test player wasn't bitter or even that frustrated. He loved the country and if he hadn't been able to oversee the changes needed to drag the team towards the professional and mental standards needed, he'd given it his best shot.
Wright knew there were senior players in the side who would never bend. Their seniority, talent and political connections set them apart from criticism or pressure.
In his book Indian Summers, he wrote about a conversation with one player after the team had surrendered to the West Indies. The cricketer told his coach there were players in the team who lacked the will to fight.
"He named names: they were exactly the same names as I had on my list," Wright said.
The coach didn't name anybody in the book, but at Tendulkar's bar he was insistent on one thing: Rahul Dravid was your man. Your future captain. The one bloke independent of the politics and bastardry.
In 2004 Wright had turned to Dravid to captain the side when the manipulative Sourav Ganguly had developed a last-minute groin strain during a very Indian cricket-politics dispute over the Nagpur pitch.
Chappell apparently had a list of underperformers, too, and also turned to Dravid. Indeed, one of his first and bravest acts as coach was to send Ganguly packing and appoint the champion batsman as his successor. The political fallout was extraordinary, but Chappell survived, although not before writing a scathing memo to the board that was leaked.
"I have serious reservations about the attitude of some players and about Sourav and his ability to take this team to a new high. It is time for him to move on and let someone else build their team toward the 2007 World Cup," he wrote. Chappell said Ganguly played politics with selections and the batting order.
"I am not prepared to sit back and allow this to continue or we will get the same results we have been seeing for some time," Chappell wrote.
Ironically, Ganguly worked his way back into the World Cup side as experiments with younger players failed, but it wasn't his re-emergence that ended Chappell's tenure.
Things had apparently been quite ugly between the coach and players in the Caribbean. Virender Sehwag is even said to have asked for a special coaching session with Chappell at 6.30am and not shown up.
On return to India, two of the players spoke to the Cricinfo website on condition of anonymity.
"Give us anyone but him," one said. "He has not done any good for this team. He has no respect for the players and looks to blame one of them any time the team loses. A coach is supposed to give the players confidence, not create insecurity."
Chappell's battle with Ganguly was brave but if the stories coming from the subcontinent are correct, it was his decision to target Tendulkar that was his ultimate undoing.
Tendulkar is untouchable, in the western sense of the word, but Chappell was having none of that. He questioned the batsman's fitness and later pushed him down to the middle order. Tendulkar was furious and a protracted argument broke out.
It was with this as the background that the Little Master returned to India and heard that Chappell was about to include his name among the players whose attitude was suspect.
A year ago, selector Yashpal Sharma revealed that Chappell did not trust Ganguly, Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh and a fifth player. This week Sharma claimed the fifth player was Tendulkar.
"The truth has come out, but it's too late, and come in a rather humiliating manner," Sharma said.
In the end, the whispering was too much for Tendulkar and he launched a scathing attack in the press.
"Things have gone a bit too far to keep quiet," he said. "I've given my heart and my soul for 17 years. Cricket has been my life for all these years and will always be.
"The World Cup was our passion, our collective goal, our dream and that has been shattered. We all are terribly disappointed.
"We played badly and, as a team, we take full responsibility for that. But what hurt us most is if the coach has questioned our attitude."
Chappell resigned within hours of the outburst, no doubt aware that he had picked the wrong fight.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21515796-5001505,00.html
 

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Chappell has "picked the wrong fight"

What a joke. So he told it like it is and they start crying. Have a look at Tendulkar's performances of late and then have a look at the massive guts thats starting to take shape and explain where this guy is fairdinkum. Ganguly has always been a troublemaker, a poor little rich kid who's quite obviously used to always getting his way and by what has transpired can't handle it when he doesn't. And Sehwag? What has this underachieving ball of fat done recently other than master the 100 ways to get run out?

Chappell is better off outta there. Their cricket is a trainwreck atm. I've never been convinced he's the greatest coach but no-one should have to put up with the political backdooring and bickering that goes on over there, or players who run and sulk everytime they get told a few home truths.
 
Ex-India coach Chappell 'unwell'

Greg Chappell had a meeting with Indian cricket officials on Friday
The outgoing Indian cricket coach, Greg Chappell, has undergone a series of medical checks at a Mumbai hospital.
Chappell went for tests at the Bombay Hospital after feeling unwell on Friday while preparing to fly out of India.

He delayed his departure and went to hospital on Saturday, but was not said to be seriously ill.

Chappell, a former Australian Test captain, stepped down as India's coach after the team was knocked out of the cricket World Cup in the first round.

According to Indian news reports, he became unwell on Friday after meeting India's cricket administrators to discuss the team's poor showing in the World Cup.

Various reports described him as suffering either dehydration, an anxiety attack, or simply feeling unwell. He was brought to the hospital and has been receiving a checkup... There is presently no cause for concern

Chappell visited the Bombay Hospital with his wife, Judy, on Saturday, for a "routine executive check-up", said Bombay Hospital spokesperson Ashish Tishwari.

He underwent tests on his kidneys, liver and blood, the hospital said. "There is presently no cause for concern."

Doctors would examine the results before deciding whether Chappell would be allowed to fly out of Mumbai, he added.

New plans

As he prepared to leave India, Chappell urged cricket administrators to adopt a 10-year plan to improve their cricket following the team's first round exit from the Cricket World Cup.

"Any half measures or cosmetic changes at this stage would be like putting Band-Aid on cancer. If you want to be like Australia, you can't run your cricket like Zimbabwe," the Times of India quoted him as saying.

"As a coach, it was easily one of the most challenging assignments one could ever hope to have. I have loved every moment of it, planning, strategising, analysing... before every tour or series.

"I came here to do a job that I have done to the best of my ability. I do not have any vested interests in Indian cricket. I have briefed the Indian board about the issues facing Indian cricket."
 

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