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[ruchir]

Again, it is all from the *sources*...

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http://worldcup.indiatimes.com/Sources_say_recalled_players_targeted_Greg/articleshow/1847885.cms


Recalled players targeted Greg, say sources
TIMES NEWS NETWORK / Joseph Hoover

BANGALORE, April 2: The rift within Team India seems to be getting wider. It appears this rift has got magnified over the role of coach Greg Chappell. Did the return of Ganguly and Zaheer create this division in the ranks, and did they target Chappell and create factionalism in a game of one-upmanship to get back at the coach?

Certain members of the team claim that this is, indeed, what happened and was one of the main reasons for India's early demise. If people spoke about the "divide" in hushed tones until recently, it is now being trumpeted louder in the corridors of cricket power, bringing out the schisms within the team.

Sources claimed that Ganguly, Sehwag, Harbhajan, Zaheer and Yuvraj were united in their 'venture' to undermine Chappell. Dravid, getting little support, went along with the popular opinion and ignored Chappell's directive to bowl first against Bangladesh, a decision for which the team paid a heavy price.

Historically, there have always been factions within the team ever since India made their international cricket debut in 1932. But it seldom affected performance because more often than not, wiser counsel prevailed.

That does not seem to be the case now. Chappell's predecessor John Wright had done a magnificent job in bringing the boys together by organising team dinners and Sunday classes. In fact, Sachin Tendulkar had assisted in making the juniors feel comfortable.

All seemed hunky-dory, until the divisive force raised their ugly face again. Wright, the mild-mannered Kiwi, unsettled by the Board's wishy-washy functioning and Jagmohan Dalmiya's indecision to renew his contract, dropped his guard, allowing Sourav Ganguly to call the shots.

When Wright left Indian shores, he obviously briefed Greg Chappell about the happenings in the Indian ranks. All indications are the former Aussie skipper then took it upon him to flush out the divisive elements.

He did that with conviction. Chappell targeted Ganguly, Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Ashish Nehra. Ganguly, Zaheer and Nehra were eased out while Sehwag, Harbhajan and Yuvraj (to a lesser extent) were constantly under the scanner. From time to time, they were put under pressure, but they survived by the skin of their teeth.

The return of Ganguly and Zaheer is believed to have turned things topsy-turvy yet again, claim sources. Individually, these players did well after returning to the squad, with Ganguly even emerging as the highest run-getter in his last three assignments.
But somehow, their 'influence' seems to have prevailed over the coterie. Chappell is expected to give a scathing report, which is to be selectively disclosed to the seven-member expert panel invited by the Board, about certain players.

The question is, why didn't Chappell inform Board members about the goings-on within the team? And if he did, then why do the Board take action?

Or is it a case of passing the buck, as some senior players claim?

[Blwe_torch]

another die-hard GC fan!

[RicePlateReddy]

Thanks for posting this Ruchir, irrespective of the credibility of the author, who I have not heard of prior.

The truth in my opinion is somewhere in-between.

1. Greg might have got the "low down" from John Wright and decided to act decisively based on that.

2. Even if one has respect for Greg's coaching philosophy (I don't -- his slides are a complete joke), there is no reason to believe he has any superior people management skills. However, the fact that he was a legendary player, in many people's minds, gives him the authority to speak his mind and be tough with the Indian icons who get away with anything when the team is winning half the time. That 'authority' may not have been a bad thing for Indian cricket, if used properly, wisely and honestly.

3. I think there is an element to truth that Greg wanted Saurav and a few others weeded out based on this personal aspect than cricketing abilities. In his (in)famous leaked letter to the board however, Greg conflated a lot of "cricketing" speak with his views of keeping Saurav out based on personality and attitude to make his case stronger. This caused him to lose a lot of credibility IMO.

4. His credibility and view were further eroded when the new comers flopped miserably after a brief honeymoon. The Indian public demanded repair before the World Cup and the BCCI brought back the discards. As soon as they arrived, they performed well, and Greg was left to his utter horror, endorsing their comeback and claiming that the dropping helped. While the fact that their dropping helped them come back with a vengeance, Greg uttering those words sounded hollow and duplicitous because he never even hinted that they should iron out their wrinkles and come back.

5. When reinstated, you can't expect the temporarily discarded players to have any great love or respect for Greg. Coldness in interactions is only to be expected. Now when the team loses, this natural outcome, given all what happened in the past, is blown up into allegations of serious factionalism.

6. It is here where great people management skills could have helped. The ability to bind again and apologize and 'get on with it for the benefit of the greater good' is not beyond possibility. We hear reports that the seniors meeting did not involve Ganguly until after the Bangla loss! If true, that just underlines that he and the captain did nothing to make the team a whole again and put distrust behind them. There is no evidence that Greg tried this beyond a very cursory level, if at all.

7. So my view is that Greg's philosophy is very poor, his people management skills are horrible but he has the guts to act decisively and push for something that can be good  in the face of unpopularity. The last skill is so valued in Indian cricket; but his profound weaknesses in the first two aspects closes the lid on any positivity or appreciation that his decisiveness would bring.

8. Ironically, I think Ganguly and co did have some attitude problems that Greg initially tried to tackle with all guns blazing and getting him fired based on cricketing issues. There is no indication that Greg even attempted to have a conversation with Ganguly to sort these out, and the war was fought by proxy using the media. In the middle of the Zimbabwe tour, Greg could have had a sit down with Ganguly and told him to change his attitude and roped the board in also and demanded confidentality all around. He could have brought in Wright and said, look, fall in line with attitude -- even Wright had some issues -- but sorted it out in a small group while saying "I can't do much if the attitude is not rectified". There was no better time to do it as Zimbabwe was a complete push over and the focus could have drifted from the playing field with minimal consquences to India's victory.

Greg blew the chance by attacking his cricketing abilities and postulating theories of Saurav being scared of Zimbabwe fast bowling.

9. Greg also goofed in making the WC this promised land of glory and using that assumed-future-glory to justify his doings and mistakes. Never did we hear him say he erred and was sorry. He gave himself no other way out, and come April 6th, he will pay for it with his job and rightly so. He might have contributed something with the highlighting of attitude issues a little, but all the noise and his dishonest ways have led to that message being diluted and frittered away.

10. After our painful and unacceptable exit losing to Bangladesh in the WC, we all now know that there are gel-ing and playing as a team problems. Yet reports are out that the most aloof character, Rahul Dravid, is still going to be in charge. If this is true, we again undervalue the people management skills aspect. If there is some regaining of form by the former icons or some new infusion of blood comes and excites at the beginning, we plaster over this fundamental issue.

[suraj]

Every different sourceis painting a different picture

sometimes it is SRT, other times VVS and then "recalled" players

too much BS is going on

[toney]

another die-hard GC fan!

When one unnamed source seems to support GC, he is a die-hard fan.
When another unnamed source criticizes him, he is spot on.

[gouravk]

This is entirely believable. I see no reason to believe that Sehwag, Harbhajan, Zaheer, Nehra and Ganguly are the epitomes of decency at all. This is very much believable.

[CLR James]

This is entirely believable. I see no reason to believe that Sehwag, Harbhajan, Zaheer, Nehra and Ganguly are the epitomes of decency at all. This is very much believable.

You are right. On the other hand, Greg Chappell is the paragon of decency. As the character Mrs. Malaprop says in Sheridan's play, "He is the pineapple of politeness."

[gouravk]

Well he definitely comes across as clear-sighted and one who knows what he wants, even though he might not be a paragon of decency.

[arjun]

Thanks for posting this Ruchir, irrespective of the credibility of the author, who I have not heard of prior.

The truth in my opinion is somewhere in-between.

1. Greg might have got the "low down" from John Wright and decided to act decisively based on that.

2. Even if one has respect for Greg's coaching philosophy (I don't -- his slides are a complete joke), there is no reason to believe he has any superior people management skills. However, the fact that he was a legendary player, in many people's minds, gives him the authority to speak his mind and be tough with the Indian icons who get away with anything when the team is winning half the time. That 'authority' may not have been a bad thing for Indian cricket, if used properly, wisely and honestly.

3. I think there is an element to truth that Greg wanted Saurav and a few others weeded out based on this personal aspect than cricketing abilities. In his (in)famous leaked letter to the board however, Greg conflated a lot of "cricketing" speak with his views of keeping Saurav out based on personality and attitude to make his case stronger. This caused him to lose a lot of credibility IMO.

4. His credibility and view were further eroded when the new comers flopped miserably after a brief honeymoon. The Indian public demanded repair before the World Cup and the BCCI brought back the discards. As soon as they arrived, they performed well, and Greg was left to his utter horror, endorsing their comeback and claiming that the dropping helped. While the fact that their dropping helped them come back with a vengeance, Greg uttering those words sounded hollow and duplicitous because he never even hinted that they should iron out their wrinkles and come back.

5. When reinstated, you can't expect the temporarily discarded players to have any great love or respect for Greg. Coldness in interactions is only to be expected. Now when the team loses, this natural outcome, given all what happened in the past, is blown up into allegations of serious factionalism.

6. It is here where great people management skills could have helped. The ability to bind again and apologize and 'get on with it for the benefit of the greater good' is not beyond possibility. We hear reports that the seniors meeting did not involve Ganguly until after the Bangla loss! If true, that just underlines that he and the captain did nothing to make the team a whole again and put distrust behind them. There is no evidence that Greg tried this beyond a very cursory level, if at all.

7. So my view is that Greg's philosophy is very poor, his people management skills are horrible but he has the guts to act decisively and push for something that can be good  in the face of unpopularity. The last skill is so valued in Indian cricket; but his profound weaknesses in the first two aspects closes the lid on any positivity or appreciation that his decisiveness would bring.

8. Ironically, I think Ganguly and co did have some attitude problems that Greg initially tried to tackle with all guns blazing and getting him fired based on cricketing issues. There is no indication that Greg even attempted to have a conversation with Ganguly to sort these out, and the war was fought by proxy using the media. In the middle of the Zimbabwe tour, Greg could have had a sit down with Ganguly and told him to change his attitude and roped the board in also and demanded confidentality all around. He could have brought in Wright and said, look, fall in line with attitude -- even Wright had some issues -- but sorted it out in a small group while saying "I can't do much if the attitude is not rectified". There was no better time to do it as Zimbabwe was a complete push over and the focus could have drifted from the playing field with minimal consquences to India's victory.

Greg blew the chance by attacking his cricketing abilities and postulating theories of Saurav being scared of Zimbabwe fast bowling.

9. Greg also goofed in making the WC this promised land of glory and using that assumed-future-glory to justify his doings and mistakes. Never did we hear him say he erred and was sorry. He gave himself no other way out, and come April 6th, he will pay for it with his job and rightly so. He might have contributed something with the highlighting of attitude issues a little, but all the noise and his dishonest ways have led to that message being diluted and frittered away.

10. After our painful and unacceptable exit losing to Bangladesh in the WC, we all now know that there are gel-ing and playing as a team problems. Yet reports are out that the most aloof character, Rahul Dravid, is still going to be in charge. If this is true, we again undervalue the people management skills aspect. If there is some regaining of form by the former icons or some new infusion of blood comes and excites at the beginning, we plaster over this fundamental issue.

Very good analysis, KOP. Applause.

[CLR James]

Applause KoP for a very sober and impartial view of the situation.

[Libran]

Joseph Hoover is a Karnataka based cricketer turned reporter...Not sure if he played Ranji...but was a good batsmen at the highest Division of league cricket.

His resources could be more internal and Karnataka centric...but let's not dismiss anything as bull*.Most of what he has sadi is what we already know...so there could be an element of truth in that.

But, nice to know that he has not added his tidbits to make it a "juicy" once unlike some bespectacled bald eagles

[RicePlateReddy]

Thanks for reading and appreciating it, CLR and arjun. 3 days for the 'suspense' to end.

[gouravk]

You think ? remember the anti-climax that happened in 2005 ?

[keep-it-cool]

Sources. Sources. Sources.

After the biggest cricketing event in the world, the only people who have come out stronger in India are these "sources".

[gouravk]

They have succeeden in making SRT break down in public ...

[feverpitch]

http://worldcup.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1853133.cms

It hurts when coach questions our attitude, says Tendulkar
TIMES NEWS NETWORK / Ajay Naidu


I am shattered beyond words and I feel helpless. I’ve never felt so bad in my entire career. World Cup was our passion, our collective dream...
   
I’ve given my heart and soul to Indian cricket for 17 years. No coach has ever mentioned, even in passing, that my attitude was not correct. Cricket has been my life.
   
Tell me, even as the world goes on talking about our defeat at the World Cup, has anyone spared a thought to ask what we are going through?

-- SRT


“Chappell did not speak to us for 3-4 days during this World Cup. He just doesn’t listen to anybody. How can a coach behave like this? It’s a disgrace”
-- Another senior player




NAGPUR, April 3: As if the World Cup disaster wasn't bad enough, the seniors in Team India have to cope with the humiliation and attitude and commitment barbs that coach Greg Chappell has allegedly been throwing at them.

But they have had enough. As the storm of rage continues to blow across the country, some of the cricketers decided to break their dignified silence and spoke to TOI . " Paani sar se ooncha ho gaya hai ( Chappell has taken things a bit too far to keep quiet )."

"Tell me, the world has gone on talking about all this (our defeat and exit) but has anybody spared a thought for us? Did they try to find out what we have been going through?" a shaken Sachin Tendulkar asked TOI .

"I am shattered beyond words and I feel helpless. I've never felt so bad in my entire career." he added. "No matter how many Tests or one-day series you win, nothing else even comes close to a World Cup triumph. The World Cup was our passion, our collective goal, our dream and that has been shattered. And we all are terribly disappointed over it.

"Again, it's not that we are defending ourselves. We do realise that we played badly and, as a team, we take full responsibility for that. But what hurt us most is if the coach has questioned our attitude.

"I've given my heart and my soul for 17 years. No coach had mentioned even in passing that my attitude was not correct. Cricket has been my life for all these years and will always be," Tendulkar said.

Some of the seniors are, in fact, so upset with the personal attacks that they are hoping to meet BCCI president Sharad Pawar on April 5 to present their side of the story. BCCI has already called for a high-powered review meeting on April 6 and 7 to chart out the future course of action for Indian cricket.

The meeting will be attended by BCCI's office-bearers and seven former captains, including Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri and S Venkatraghavan. Before that, captain Rahul Dravid, chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar, coach Chappell and manager on the West Indies tour, Sanjay Jagdale, will meet the Board officials to explain the team's performance.

The senior players want to meet Pawar before that.

[Prafulla]

Nothing may happen on BCCI meeting. All will come out smiling. Players will be excused for their performances. GC will be asked to go. RD may refuse to continue as captain. Team manager may be asked to submit milder report and eventually. It will end up like another stage play.
See - In India, our politricians rarely show the strong will to take tough decisions. and for any controversy, we have committees in democracy. So another committee will be appointed to investigate and by that time - people will be busy again watching Bangladesh series.

[suraj]

Nothing may happen on BCCI meeting. All will come out smiling. Players will be excused for their performances. GC will be asked to go. RD may refuse to continue as captain. Team manager may be asked to submit milder report and eventually. It will end up like another stage play.
See - In India, our politricians rarely show the strong will to take tough decisions. and for any controversy, we have committees in democracy. So another committee will be appointed to investigate and by that time - people will be busy again watching Bangladesh series.

Very sad indeed

[gouravk]

THat might happen of course. I think nothing will happen dramatically, whatever change is effected, if any, will be done gradually over a period of a few months.

[dextrous]

Nothing may happen on BCCI meeting. All will come out smiling. Players will be excused for their performances. GC will be asked to go. RD may refuse to continue as captain. Team manager may be asked to submit milder report and eventually. It will end up like another stage play.
See - In India, our politricians rarely show the strong will to take tough decisions. and for any controversy, we have committees in democracy. So another committee will be appointed to investigate and by that time - people will be busy again watching Bangladesh series.

No way. TOo many people involved -- too many BCCI officials involved. Each and every report is going to be leaked either by coach, officials, or players. * has hit the fan.

[gouravk]

If Greg does not go, then that will be a clear verdict in his favor. Then we can safely interpret that the Board thinks he was in the right and the senior players SRT etal were in the wrong.

If he does go, however, it can be more ambivalent. The board can pretend to bid GC a respectable farewell, thank him for what he has done, say they are looking for something else and that they want a change and move on. THis will be the easier option. It will help to sweep all controversies under the carpet. I daresay it will be the more likely option. They can cling on to RD for another year as captain, thereby giving the impression that they are not completely giving in to the clique of senior players but taking into account the point of view of management (represented by captain) too.

Of course in this situation RDs role is crucial. He has a few options. He might go with the board's plan. Or he could take a stand and say that he wont captain if these issues are swept under the carpet, and the mafia stays on in power and Greg is kicked out. Third option, he can politely and dignifiedly refuse the captaincy, not make a public issue of it and concentrate on winning games for the team as a batsman. I daresay the kind of personality he is he might opt for the third option.

[suraj]

GC will go- I am 100% sure about that

[Prafulla]

If Greg does not go, then that will be a clear verdict in his favor. Then we can safely interpret that the Board thinks he was in the right and the senior players SRT etal were in the wrong.

If he does go, however, it can be more ambivalent. The board can pretend to bid GC a respectable farewell, thank him for what he has done, say they are looking for something else and that they want a change and move on. THis will be the easier option. It will help to sweep all controversies under the carpet. I daresay it will be the more likely option. They can cling on to RD for another year as captain, thereby giving the impression that they are not completely giving in to the clique of senior players but taking into account the point of view of management (represented by captain) too.

Of course in this situation RDs role is crucial. He has a few options. He might go with the board's plan. Or he could take a stand and say that he wont captain if these issues are swept under the carpet, and the mafia stays on in power and Greg is kicked out. Third option, he can politely and dignifiedly refuse the captaincy, not make a public issue of it and concentrate on winning games for the team as a batsman. I daresay the kind of personality he is he might opt for the third option.

Yes, RD must focus on his batting and must leave all these politics around players / coach. Even if GC goes, the inner politics of indian cricket is not going to go away. In fact - JW was also bit upset for indiscipline in indian team

[arjun]

If Greg does not go, then that will be a clear verdict in his favor. Then we can safely interpret that the Board thinks he was in the right and the senior players SRT etal were in the wrong.

If he does go, however, it can be more ambivalent. The board can pretend to bid GC a respectable farewell, thank him for what he has done, say they are looking for something else and that they want a change and move on. THis will be the easier option. It will help to sweep all controversies under the carpet. I daresay it will be the more likely option. They can cling on to RD for another year as captain, thereby giving the impression that they are not completely giving in to the clique of senior players but taking into account the point of view of management (represented by captain) too.

Of course in this situation RDs role is crucial. He has a few options. He might go with the board's plan. Or he could take a stand and say that he wont captain if these issues are swept under the carpet, and the mafia stays on in power and Greg is kicked out. Third option, he can politely and dignifiedly refuse the captaincy, not make a public issue of it and concentrate on winning games for the team as a batsman. I daresay the kind of personality he is he might opt for the third option.

Clique of senior players! Mafia! Really? Don't you have even a bit of shame? Whatever Greg says is not God's own word. This guy is a pathological liar.

[gouravk]

Sure, but i have reason to believe there is a substantial amount of truth in what Greg says.