Author: Pran Kurup

Pakistan’s media manager spoke out about obsession with religion in the Pak team. Finally, someone had the guts to speak out about this. Even the late Woolmer had mentioned how he had difficulty at first with constant prayers by the team. But later he felt that it helped the team bond better. It could very well have been a case of the Woolmer compromising on a situation he felt he could never fundamentally change.With the overall rise of religious extremism in Pakistan, its influence in sports is very believable. But under Inzy, religious fervor has scaled needless heights. From Mr. Mir’s report it sounds like this stretched even beyond the blatant display on the field. If you think back to the hey days of Pak cricket when Pak won the World cup in 1992, it was dominated by the suave Imran Khan, the street fighter Javed Miandad and the more progressive minded folks like Aamir Sohail, Rameez Raja, Wasim Akram and others. Unfortunately, a decade and half later, Inzy who was a member of that team has clearly lead the team in different direction. It is time to make a fresh start with perhaps Younis Khan as the captain as suggested by Imran Khan. While Pakistan cricket tries to re-group after the World Cup debacle, Mr. Mir’s report is a perfect place to start.

Greg Chappell lost a golden opportunity to regain some credibility. Firstly, his decision to “not seek an extension” should have come immediately following India’s disgraceful exit from the World Cup. Even at this late stage, he does not take responsibility, but instead says that he is leaving for “personal and family reasons”. There are rumors in the press that he has been finding fault with everyone but himself, supposedly resulting in a revolt by many of the senior players. It almost sounds like the pressure on him from all sides was just too much to handle, that he finally caved in. There is no doubt that he did make a contribution to Indian cricket. It does appear though that he is far too inflexible, particularly to fit into the Indian system. This decision of his does appear like a preemptive strike before the BCCI meeting this week. In any case, its time for Indian cricket to make a fresh start.

The Zee TV folks have jumped into try and accomplish what BCCI has failed to do — unearth India’s cricketing talent. Its a great move provided the Zee folks can make peace with the BCCI and not be seen as a threat to BCCI. On the other hand, it is one more step in the direction of complete commercialisation of the game of cricket.

There is so much money in the game of cricket today in India that this move is not in the least bit surprising. The BCCI is the richest Cricket Board, the sponsors are always lining up to throw money, bulk of the revenue from World Cricket comes from India, yet India can’t make it to the top 8 in World Cricket! For an aspiring super power, this is a perfect slap in the face. A classic example of inability to deliver despite all the available resources.

Enter Subhash Chandra and his Zee brand with the Indian Cricket League. A bold step to emulate what Kerry Packer and Channel 9 did to World Cricket in the late 70s. The next several months should be interesting. Perhaps the aftermath of the World Cup defeat might soon be brushed aside in light of Zee’s new and evolving India Cricket League.

The BCCI paid Greg Chappell a huge premium to take on the job of Coach of the Indian cricket team. His goal was to transform Team India. Remember he made his case to Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and S. Venkatraghavan (I think) and convinced them of his vision for Team India. Bottom line, whatever this vision was, it has not materialized. He should take responsibility and quit instead of sticking around to wait for the BCCI to decide on the future course of action. (there were rumors prior to the World Cup that he would most certainly be asked to continue). Its as simple as that.

After the World Cup debacle, there has been some talk of retaining him under the pretext that there is not much the Coach can do if the players don’t perform. Though this might be partly true, there has to be a sense of accountability especially when there is so much at stake. And it has to start with the Coach. It is important to dissociate Dravid from Chappell because Chappell is a hired gun, while Dravid is still India’s mainstay and almost impossible to replace as a player in the team. Without doubt he is far more valuable to the team than Ganguly, Sachin and Sehwag combined. So it would be a bad choice if the BCCI chose to throw the baby with the bath water!

A coach can add value to the team provided he is a good thinker and strategist at heart. If you think back to the 96 world cup, Sri Lanka won because they deployed a strategy of attacking from the get go with Jayasuriya and Kaluwathirana. These batsmen were hitting over the infield, and literally sixes were flowing from the first over! This was unconventional and took the opposition by surprise. A coach definitely has a role in developing this kind of strategy. The batting order is another area. The bowlers used in matches is something the coach can influence too. Here are a few such areas where Chappell clearly failed to deliver.

• Sehwag has been repeatedly under-bowled by Dravid every single time? Chappell as a Coach could have influenced this trend over the last 18 months especially when India has always had a problem with the fifth bowlers quota of overs.

• Chappell’s view was that the middle overs were crucial and hence Sachin dropped down the batting order. This was a terrible mistake. Sachin has been at his best in the opening slot.

• Sachin was out in identical fashion (as in the match against SL) to the same bowler when SL toured India recently. The Coach can certainly point this out and get a player of Sachin’s stature to rectify this. Sachin, Sehwag, VVS and to a certain extent Dravid have all developed a weakness to the incoming ball. Mohammed Asif, SL’s Fernando and other bowlers have repeatedly exploited this weakness. Chappell as coach simply failed to address this.

• India never had a decent fifth bowler and none of the other four are genuine strike bowlers who can grab a bunch of wickets. An out of form Pathan and an unused Sehwag is what the team was left with in the final analysis.

• There is no credible all rounder in the team either. Irfan Pathan was a great find but he was overexposed and burnt out well before the World Cup. Rotating the players so they don’t get burnt out is a key piece of strategy that Chappell failed to put in place. Sehwag is another example of someone who should have been rested or dropped well in advance of world cup.

India had no strategy in place to address any of these shortcomings. In fact, the team that went to the World Cup in 2003 (the credit for which should go to John Wright and Ganguly) was not very different from the present team! If there was a grand vision that Chappell stepped in with, it begs the question as to what it was and what came of it and why? In the final analysis, now that the end result is there for all to see, Greg Chappell must take responsibility for all this. In any sport ultimately the players have to deliver. But the coach can’t hide behind this excuse and has to take ownership.

Lastly, the accountability should not stop with Chappell. Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and Venkatraghavan (or whoever else), the team that selected Greg Chappell should also be quietly phased out to bring in other former players into the decision making process. These folks obviously fell for Chappell’s sales pitch. Its time to bring in some fresh thinking at the very source.

The Jamaican police have confirmed their findings that the murderer(s) are not locals. They have also said that it appears as though Woolmer knew his murderers because there is no sign of any struggle. That leaves visitors to the island as the prime suspects. A small island like Jamaica does not have data on those coming and leaving the island during a short span of a few days? The Hotel guests during those few days didn’t lead to any clues? The closed circuit TVs were not good enough? Scotland yard imports can’t help solve the case? Given all these pieces of information it appears really strange that the police has not been able to make any arrests of possible suspects.

Is it possible that the ICC and the Jamaicans are deliberately delaying the announcement of any of its findings? After all it is bad for the island and for the game of cricket. There are already some calls for an premature end to the World Cup. Its sad and shameful that Bob Woolmer was murdered. Its worse that the police are unable to make any headway.