In a country where the spade is worshipped as God, an Aussie dares to call a spade, a spade. Guru Greg, welcome again!
With the cricket fever catching up, I could not avoid getting bitten myself too. The other day, I spent over an hour listening to
Chappell’s interview, in Rediff, and I was amazed with the clarity of thought that he displayed. He has always done the things which he believed were right, irrespective of what the consequences would be. And that attitude commands a lot of respect.
Much has been written about the (now) famed Indian batting order, and the coach has come for a lot of criticism. In the interview, Chappell makes it clear, that his decisions have sound logic behind them, what he calls as cricket-logic. Imagine a bowling order, in lines with a batting order. Imagine Zaheer, Agarkar, Munaf, Pathan, Kumble bowling in an order, until each one tires out. Isn’t it giving the game away, on a platter? If such is the case, isn’t fixed batting order too, giving the opponent a fixed target, and make their task easier? Who would you want to play in the crucial overs of 35-50, after the fall of, say, three wickets- Dhoni, or Dravid?
With Chappell, the Indian team has seen some innovative, non-conventioinal ways of thinking, and beating the opponent. The players are given specific roles, and they are given unconventional roles too. In the process of these trial and error methods, a few have lost some of their specialization, but in the longer run, they have gained much more than what is apparent.
Often times in the recent past, the batsmen have failed in their roles, and the bowlers have been a revelation with their batting. Such was not the strength, of the Indian team, and the tail never really used to wag. Even though today too, we often see the lower order crumbling, a fight back is as much expected today!
If today we see Saurav and Zaheer making such strong comebacks, it is as much because of their unnatural strength as it is of the circumstances they were put into. Though, I must admit, I was disappointed with the way Saurav had been handled, and hats off to his spirit. Anyway, tougher situations call for tougher people.
The experiments, had some exceptionally good success rates and exceptionally bad ones too. And some of them were plain dumb. What we forget is, the coach too is learning with the experiments. And any experiment has an equal likelihood of an expected result and of an unexpected result. Mind you, both results, result in a success! The team knows what to do, as well as what not to do.
The Guru's experiments have sharpened the learning curve of Indian cricket itself, and the coach has been a great leveler, like the game of cricket itself. He has gained yet another fan here!
