The Hindu : Sport : Special Committee meets today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 27, 2005

Sport

Sport

Special Committee meets today

G. Viswanath

MUMBAI: The Special Committee which was constituted to appoint the coach of the Indian team last June, will meet here at noon on Tuesday to take stock of the situation arising out of the confrontation between Sourav Ganguly and Greg Chappell and also to discuss threadbare the Indian team's cricket activities in Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.

The members of the committee are former India captains, S. Venkatraghavan, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri, the present principal office-bearers president Ranbir Singh Mahendra and secretary S.K. Nair and the immediate past president Jagmohan Dalmiya.

After the Special Committee appointed Chappell as the coach, the BCCI decided that the committee will act as a sounding board for Chappell to express his opinions on the team from time to time and in one of its working committee meetings adopted a resolution to include Chappell in the committee. It was also decided that the committee will meet at the end of a set of three series and review the performance of the Indian team.

BCCI secretary S.K. Nair on Sunday had said that Ganguly has been invited to convey his version of the discussion he had with Chappell before the first Test at Bulawayo. On the third day of the first Test Ganguly had told the media that he had been asked to step down from captaincy by Chappell so that both Yuvraj Singh and Mohd. Kaif can be included in the team. Thereafter (On Sept. 18) Chappell in order to make his position clear on the sensitive issue emailed a long report, the contents of which are public knowledge now.

Manager also invited

The manager of the team in Zimbabwe, Amitabh Choudhary, has also been invited. There is a likelihood of the chairman of selectors, Kiran More, being called to attend the meeting at some stage when the committee discusses the performance of the team in Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.

Chappell, in fact, had had an opportunity to offer his point of view to the national selectors at a separate meeting with Nair and Kiran More before the team was picked for the one-day and Test series in Zimbabwe.

Zaheer Khan was not picked for the first part of the Zimbabwe tour (Videocon Tri-series) after Chappell's discussion with the national selectors. Zaheer was included for the Test series though. "He found his rhythm at the end of the tour of Zimbabwe,'' said Chappell here on Sunday.

One can expect Chappell to present to the Special Committee the physical and mental aspects, promise and potential of the players and also the reports prepared by biomechanical expert Ian Frazer, physio John Gloster and physical trainer Gregory King.

Frazer contract

The Australian is also keen on Frazer being awarded a two-year contract upto the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies. The BCCI has agreed to employ Frazer on a series-by-series basis. Chappell is also keen that kinescologist Charles Krebs comes on board. He will also renew his request to appoint a permanent manager for the team so that he can maintain continuity and the players can be in touch with him without a break.

Another aspect Chappell is expected to point out is the delayed departure of the Indian team for the Zimbabwe tour, the flawed travel programme from India and in Zimbabwe.

Obviously Chappell may face some tricky questions, like why he marked his e-mail to Jagmohan Dalmiya and Gautam Das Gupta and the chairman of selectors and why he sent messages to some journalist friends in India. Chappell can expect someone like Ravi Shastri backing him, but at least on the issue of asking Ganguly to step down before the first Test, Gavaskar might be frank in saying that it is the responsibility of the national selectors to appoint and remove a captain. This is what Gavaskar said in the course of the first Test at Bulawayo while commentating for ESPN-STAR Sports.

Meanwhile the BCCI President Ranbir Singh and Secretary S.K. Nair told `The Hindu' on Monday that they had no knowledge of an informal committee announced by former BCCI president Inderjit Singh Bindra to draft changes to the election rules. Bindra had announced on Sunday that an informal committee, consisting of Mahendra, Jagmohan Dalmiya, Shashank Manohar (Vidabha) and himself, would finalises the changes in the election rules. "No such decision was taken at the AGM,'' said Ranbir Singh.

On Nehra

Chappell had also e-mailed a detailed and damaging report on left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Nehra played in the Videocon Cup tri-series and thereafter pulled out of the three-day match against Zimbabwe Board XI at Mutare, the only warm-up match before the first Test at Bulawayo. Nehra complained of acute back muscle trouble and left Zimbabwe saying he will be "ready for the one-day series against Sri Lanka.'' He was replaced by Ajit Agarkar, who had already left Harare for home after the tri-series final, but was asked to fly to Bulawayo from Johannesburg.

According to reliable sources, the team management was unhappy about Nehra's decision to "declare himself unfit'' for the Test series and informing them about his back problem only after Agarkar had taken the flight to Mumbai via Johannesburg. While Agarkar was contacted after he landed at Johannesburg, his baggage and cricket kit could not be off-loaded. His baggage was sent back to him from Mumbai.

Attitude problem

During the Zimbabwe tour the team physiotherapist John Gloster had gone on record saying that the left-arm seamer suffers from "niggles off and on'' and pulled a back muscle after the final against New Zealand. Evidently the coach has pointed to an "attitude'' problem in Nehra who has not played a five-day match after the Test match against Pakistan at Rawalpindi in April 2004. India has played 13 Test matches since.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport