Indian cricket team coach Greg Chappell’s e-mail to BCCI president Ranbir Singh Mahendra has opened a veritable can of worms. In unusually strong and bitter language, Chappell has attacked Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, describing him as’physically and mentally unfit’ to continue to lead the team. Ganguly, in turn, has responded by saying such expressions reveal Chappell’s character more than his.
This is an unfortunate turn of events for which both the Captain and the coach are, to varying degrees, responsible. Clearly, the hastily prepared truce between Ganguly and Chappell in faraway Kolkata through the good offices of the team’s manager failed to work. The differences between the two run deeper, and nothing short of a more active intervention - now that the team has returned victorious from Zimbabwe - is called for. In the process, however, considerable damage has been done to the image of cricket, and the countless followers of the game in the country are dismayed that things were allowed to reach such a pass in the first place.
The discerning, however, will note the developments over the past few weeks as an inexorable movement in a Greek tragedy. Both the protagonists are men of standing. If Chappell has been one of the all-time greats of the game, Ganguly is the most successful captain in India’s cricketing history. Both are strong and sharp cricketing minds, and, with the benefit of hindsight, the board should have considered such factors before employing the new coach. Ganguly had worked admirably with former coach John Wright perhaps also because the two had contrasting approaches and complementing styles.
While the Indian captain led from the front, the Kiwi coach, ever in the background, was content to allow his ward to soak in the limelight. With Chappell, however, things have unfolded rather differently. He is a talkative man who basks in media attention. This was a role hitherto played by Ganguly. Disconnect between the two, therefore, was perhaps just a matter of time. Having said that, it would be perhaps best if the two exercised restraint and left the ball in the BCCI’s court instead of issuing soundbytes to the media that will certainly not help in resolving the issues between them.
The question, however, is who will guard the guards? The BCCI mandarins, with their relentless lobbying and politicking for posts over the past week, hardly appear capable of addressing the problem that has cropped up between the coach and the captain.
As the final court of appeal in matters pertaining to the Indian cricket team, the BCCI must give a better account of its professionalism. To begin with, it must set its own house in order. Its present office-bearers have just won a reprieve from the Calcutta High Court that has issued a stay order on the BCCI’s annual general meeting and the election process. The board must now use the interregnum to probe the matter and aim at a rapprochement between the coach and the captain, as it will be even more unfortunate if the controversy is allowed to snowball further. The board, the captain and the coach owe it to the cricket-loving people of the country to resolve their differences amicably.
In the end, I have just one thing to say.’Survival of the fittest’ and saurav you are no longer fit enough to captain this hugely talented team. There is no point you coming to open the innings and add another single digit figure to your recent dismal performances, especially when century-makers like kaif sits on bench to watch you mis-field. It’s time to say adieu.