MUMBAI: The Australian cricket squad, currently on tour of India, has paid the Indian team a huge compliment by bringing with them, as assistant coach (analyst), none other than Greg Chappell, whose association with the country and its cricket is too well known, inasmuch as it has been controversial throughout his two-year tenure as coach.
After making an unceremonious exit, he returned to India to take charge of a cricket academy started by Rajasthan Cricket Association. However, even his detractors will readily agree that Chappell brought in a new vigor into the Indian team by giving younger players their long-awaited opportunities to play regularly at the highest level. M. S, Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan and Suresh Raina are some classic examples.
His partiality for youth brought him in conflict with the senior players, none more prominently than Sourav Ganguly, who was discarded from the team and had to spend almost two years in limbo. That he is out of favor again must make Chappell’s move sound right, whatever the reaction otherwise.
There are no two opinions that Chappell knows the present set of Indian cricketers, their inherent talent, as well as their weak points, inside out. He is also familiar with the new supply-line of youngsters, having seen them at the academy and IPL matches around the country.
So, it is not surprising that Cricket Australia has added Chappell, as an analyst, to support their national team, particularly on the tour of India. His knowledge of individual rival players and his wisdom will certainly come handy. This also suggests that Ricky Ponting’s Australian team is wary of the challenges they face in India. They got a taste of what to expect during the last series at home against India.
The question that is being asked in some quarters is whether it would be prudent now to allow Chappell to continue to head the Rajasthan Cricket Association academy, which is turning national from this season.
In today’s world of high professionalism, you cannot raise questions of ethics, as long as money can buy everything. You would not have had John Wright managing India against New Zealand, Greg Chappell against Australia and the late Bob Woolmer being the Pakistani team coach against South Africa.
If Chappell’s present stint is a one-off assignment, then he may as well return to Jaipur at the end of it. But will it not be considered grossly unfair on his part to use all his India-gained knowledge in favor of the Australian team against India and that too in a series being played in India.
Why should India at all be perturbed? In today’s high-tech era any player’s strength and weaknesses can be analyzed in a jiffy from the available technology. What great guns can Greg Chappell hand over to the Australian team that can be fired against India?
