The Hindu : Sport : Greg Chappell's reign

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Thursday, Apr 05, 2007
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Greg Chappell's reign — a mixed bag at best

Vijay Parthasarathy

CALLING IT A DAY: Greg Chappell ended his two-year association with the Indian team on Wednesday. — PHOTO: AP

CHENNAI: Greg Chappell's decision not to seek an extension of his contract concludes a two-year association with Indian cricket that produced mixed results for the National team. The news that Chappell sent an email to BCCI administrative head Ratnakar Shetty and also spoke to Sharad Pawar comes a day after the usually reticent Sachin Tendulkar publicly spoke of his hurt at having his attitude questioned by the coach.

Reports of the team breaking into factions have emerged, and how blame is to be apportioned will be decided after the BCCI review and working committees meet on Friday and Saturday respectively.

Unexpected exit

India's unexpected first round exit from the World Cup will tarnish Chappell's record of 32 wins and 27 losses in one-dayers.

The emphatic 6-1 series victory over Sri Lanka, which came in the early stages of Chappell's reign, and the subsequent 2-1 win in February, count for very little now especially after the Lankans all but ensured India's elimination with a performance that more or less settled old scores.

India's batting strength, around which centred Chappell's best-laid plans, stands exposed. While overall the figures look healthy for most members of the one-day squad that travelled to the Caribbean, in truth the batsmen — Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and, above all, Mahendra Singh Dhoni — had been struggling for nearly a year-and-a-half in conditions that didn't explicitly aid batsmen.

In such circumstances, the aforementioned batsmen recorded an average of less than 30. This batting line-up, flushed as it is with potential match-winners, rarely clicked as a unit during Chappell's term.

The bowlers, on the other hand, will cop lesser criticism in the aftermath of this debacle.

Victories

Amidst the current chaos, however, Chappell's significant successes in Tests could end up being ignored. During his tenure India won seven Tests, lost four and drew seven. Four of these series were away while two were at home.

India has traditionally performed below par outside the sub-continent, but Chappell's men, led on the field by Rahul Dravid, secured a series win over the West Indies in the Caribbean for only the second time in history, and for the first time in 35 years.

Despite the promise that Chappell's methods held out, this proved a mixed reign at best. India has dropped from its highest ever position of two to sixth in the official ICC one-day rankings — and even if rankings should not be taken as conclusive evidence of class, they do point at relative form, and that might suggest something to those who expected India to win the World Cup.

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