Mr. Gregory Stephen Chappell, I wish to thank you for trying your best to screw up the Indian Cricket team and my special kudos for being successful to a great extent. M/s. Sunny Gavaskar, Venkatraghavan and Ravi Shastri thought that they were interviewing you for the post of commentator but then selected you as the Coach in May 2005 purely based on your presentation skills and not on coaching skills. Though Tom Moody lost out in the race, he was successful in taking Srilanka through to the Super Eights and as I feel now, even to the semi-finals. Jimmy Amarnath, the man, millions of Indians consider as their hero of 1983 when Kapil Devils were crowned World champions may have lost to you on the English / Presentation skills, but our "desi" coach could have made a big difference.. Daisy Haynes knew the ground realities in Windies and could have been better than you atleast for the World Cup ! You have pocketed millions of dollars, but the hard fact is that India was knocked out of first round by Bangladesh ! (Thankfully, they won against Bermuda)
Greg, you did not only ensure that India lost in the first round of World Cup, but also screwed up the team spirit ! Kapil Devils won just because they were a "team"... Compare the batting line up of the Indian team of '83 with the team that lost in the first round in '07.. Openers Kris Srikkanth and Sunny Gavaskar were two different players - one going for the kill from ball one and the other steadying the innings on the other end. You too had similar, with Robin Uthappa and Sourav Ganguly. The middle order of '83 was packed with ever dependable Jimmy Amarnath, explosive Sandeep Patil, Yashpal Sharma and Kirti Azad. You too had "Jammy" Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Virendar Sehwag. Dhoni replaces Kirmani.. '83 had Sandhu, Madan Lal and Binny to take care of so-called medium pace and you had Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar and Munaf Patel to do the job... Haryana hurricane and captain Kapil and Harbhajan Singh from neighbouring Punjab is the one and only difference.. So, what made your guys slump against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.. I still can't understand the logic of having Bhajji against Sri Lanka in place of "Jumbo" Kumble who tormented the Bermudians in the only match he played. Bhajji was out of sorts in the match against Bangladesh also...
Fine Greg, let me put this World Cup out from my memory for a while.. I wanted to write a open letter to you on other aspects during your horrible two year stint with the Indian Team. You threw out Sourav Ganguly from the team - the reasons though have come in bits and pieces, nobody knew the true story.. But, whatever it was Dada proved you wrong when he came back strongly with many half centuries.. I don't fault him for one bad game against Sri Lanka, but his comeback is the best. I also felt that he should have had a break - but that was too long than expected. Why Sehwag did not get the same treatment ? What was the treatment you met out to the young Irfan Pathan - he was kept guessing till the eleventh hour whether he would catch the flight to Windies and finally he had only to carry the drinks bottle throughout the World Cup. Ajit Agarkar could not even get a wicket with the new ball even against Bermuda and the team managment retain him for the match against Sri Lanka.
Last not but the least, Greg.. You spoke more than what you achieved. I agree that your speaking and presentation skills got you the job, but, what did you do to the team - the spirit was off. You tried to play spoilsport between Laxman and Dada and finally you say that you were fearing for your life. You Aussies fear for everything. After spending almost two years in India, do you still have such fear ? We give vent to our feelings and emotions but not go to the extreme. If we were like what you had thought, then your middle finger would have been amputated long back when you showed it to our fans in Kolkata ! Never do such things to Asians - we are sentimental !!
All the best for your future - please for heaven's sake do not take up any other assignment with BCCI and keep some distance from Indian cricket so that you can have a healthy life. Hope BCCI will leave the interest in a "foreigner" and start thinking that Indians are best in all fields.. Though I started this blog on 24th March after India lost to Srilanka, due to time constraints completing only now !
