The last question that Greg Chappell was asked after his presentation to the panel that was to recommend the coach to the BCCI was, “Do you agree that the Alphonso mango is better than the Queensland variety?” Greg’s response was prompt, “Absolutely”.
This was of course after the serious business of his presentation was over and he was gathering his papers and closing the laptop. Over the years, both ‘Gregory Stephen’ as I call him and I have had discussions on many aspects other than cricket and the debate about the better mango was one that had been unresolved for quite some time. I had sent him a box of mangoes last year when he had come down to Chennai to attend the pace bowling camp of MRF. He must obviously have sampled them and so his immediate response in favor of Alphonso.
I wouldn’t have brought up this part of his interaction with him, but for the fact that at the recent ICC meeting, the CEO of Cricket Australia came up to me and said that was a great last question, so it was obviously something that Greg himself had revealed. I bring it up now because immediately after his selection, there were plenty of speculative stories about who preferred whom inspite of the fact that it was a unanimous decision to have him as the next India cricket coach. There were also many other stories about whom he wanted as captain, etc. which never came up at all in his presentation and vision statement to the panel. Greg had got some thoughts printed and the papers he gave to the panel as he was leaving, but it wasn’t part of his presentation. He also must have given those papers to some media-persons for he would have wanted to have less baggage weight on his way back home.
The media are undergoing a churning process with lots of movements from one paper or channel to another, and clearly the stories that appeared were from the new guys trying to make an impression on the new employers, even if it meant that truth was not always paramount. That’s understandable, but now that the season is to begin, let’s hope that all those keen on India doing well will desist from looking for stories or creating ones, because unless there is total coordination between all the stakeholders, Indian cricket will not progress. Sure, if there’s a genuine story, please do go ahead, but no speculative stories that will spoil relationships between players and officials.
He may have been a bit late for the Alphonso this year as the season for the greatest of mangoes finishes by May, but he has made sure that he is well early in India to get used to the conditions and get to know the people he will be working with over the next two years at least. He has already met up with the National Cricket Academy people and spoken to the trainees at the camp.
The Indian probables will be the next he will interact with, and seeing them will also give him an idea of the talent that’s there, though there are others too who haven’t been chosen but who will certainly come in the frame as the season unfolds. The selectors invariably try and include more bowlers at such camps because they want to see how they bowl in the nets to the top batsmen in India, and also because net bowlers are needed. Though there will always be net bowlers available locally, they are not of a testing enough quality for the regular batsmen. Since the players will be coming from an off-season, they will be a bit rusty and so the batsmen in particular will need some hard practice. Remember what happened last year after a similar break? The Indians, who had basked in the glory of being the first team to win in Pakistan, were simply not there in the Asia Cup, and the season just went downhill from there. It’s this that Greg will have to watch out for and make sure that from the first game the Indians are in prime touch.
That there are a fair number of players in the list from the Plate Group should allay the fears of those who thought that performances in that group are not taken into consideration by the committee. A fine balance has to be struck there, for make no mistake, there is a huge gap between those in the Plate and those in the Elite Division. After all, the Elite Group consists of the best 15 teams, and so it’s better not to get too carried away with the performances in the Plate Group. Already we have seen what happens when those from the Plate Group have been pushed in the India side, so unless its a proven performer whose team has gone down to the Plate Group, there has to be a judicious selection and not just based on runs scored and wickets taken, for those could well be easy runs and cheap wickets, and the players may get exposed cruelly when they play at a higher level.
The season gets under way in less than a month, and with ‘Gregory Stephen’ in charge, it promises to be a fulfilling one.
