Embracing the Chappellway

Embracing the Chappellway

To the regular readers of this blogspace : I am very sorry for my delayed re-entry into writing about the game. Was held up due to some personal and academic work. I have also just started work on my first book "Sri Lanka Cricket : The Storyteller". I am back with my regular dose about the happenings in the game and hope to really rip it through this time, with regular daily postings about the wonderful game of cricket.

Today's content is dedicated to what has actually gone behind the making of the rejuvenated Indian team, that looks on the upswing these days. Its surely been strange that for three to four months since he took charge of 11 cricketers and 1 billion cricket fans, Greg Chappell had to devote more time bothering about what went behind the BCCI doors in Kolkata, and settling his personal dispute with the discarded skipper Saurav Ganguly, than talk, teach and play cricket. Having said that, it took him virtually no time to discard the faulty pieces and gather his forces back on the chessboard, when Sri Lanka took on India. In the beginning of the series, one expected a real tough home-test for the Indians, but the sublime confidence with which India played really indicated the short memory the team had about that disasterous tour to Zimbabwe. Was it more of Greg Chappell stamping his class and leaving a mark or just Sri Lanka being poor tourists ?

What seems really interesting and intriguing when you read into the mind of an Australian is not the amount of cricketing skills he brings into the game, but also non-cricketing factors like professionalism, toughness (both mental and physical) and most importantly discipline. Somehow I feel that it was more of "sticking to the basics" that won India the series with such a whooping margin than the 183* of Dhoni (as more cricket fanatics would fancy). I somehow fancy Indian cricket to rule the roost during his tenure because there is a sense of purpose that has emerged within this unit. Tough-decisions being taken have never been a part of an Indian curry, rightly called as emotional fools. But here is a sea-change one is witnessing, after the advent of Chappell where the mind, the heart and the body seemed to have synchronised pretty well. It was indeed important for the Indian coach to make an impression, especially keeping in mind the short public memory the Indian cricket fans have. A famous Marketing guru has stated the four Ps of Marketing - Price, Placement, Product and Promotion. Greg Chappell has brought the famous old 3 Ps of Aussie sport into India - Passion (unquestioned), Pride (playing for the country) and indeed Performance. Another famous slogan that Chappell has brought in his baggage from Adelaide seems to be "Perform or Perish". For once, we go beyond Zones to assess who is actually performing and who isnt. Some of the Indian regulars have surely been on the wrong side of Chappell and this adage has surely seen them on the sidelines ever since. Another key aspect of this management jargon means insecurity. But there is a positive side to it too. Insecurity for a player means more hunger and hence possibly more performance. The series win over the Lankans has highlighted, how subtle changes can bring about results.

One just needs to spend a little while in that confident Indian dressing room to guage what Chappellway actually is. Contrary to theorists, I would not assess a coach by his results. Tom Moody was hailed as Sri Lanka's future hope and look what has happened to his side. Maybe, we get too judgemental seeing the number of wins and losses. Times have changed and so have the demands of the game and the way it needs to be analysed. With development of a side given due importance, the future matters more than the present. With this regard, Greg deserves 100% for the young bench strength he has formed and more importantly blood them in to feel the heat and demands of the highest level. Perhaps, we would'nt have seen an RP Singh or Sreesanth for that matter steaming in against some of the most dangerous batsmen in ODI cricket. What really is impressive is the bunch of talent he has gone about choosing (thanks to the selectors also), have delivered. The Dhonis, the RP Singhs and the Rainas are tomorrow's India, and certainly from the way the management has handled them so far, their future seems to glow brighter by the day.

Having said that, it surely is too early to judge the impact of Chappell. By the time he finishes his first anniversary with Team India, looking at his report card would be interesting. It will contain a few scars, but hopefully with the charisma, the character and the confidence, the scars will fade away. Indian cricket is certainly on the brink, I say on the brink, simply because of the nature of its unpredictability. Consistency is the watchword and if Chappell commits himself to the levels of excellence he promised when he arrived, that word will surely have more than just one meaning...

Over to you Greg and Rahul.....