By Gaurang
April 3 2007

In a few days time, India will know whether “perform or perish” mantra is only for players or also for the coach. Hired specifically with the mandate to take India to the final stages of the 2007 World Cup and paid handsomely for it, under-fire Indian coach Greg Chappell is fighting everyone. Chappell first had a problem with India’s most successful Test and ODI captain, and maneuvered him out of the team, with the help of BCCI politicians who are for ever feuding and plotting amongst themselves. He next cleaned house and in cahoots with a compliant chairman of selectors who he let participate in “training” sessions, including allowing him to suit up in India gear and “take nets”, to shunt out of the team any player who questioned his “vision” for the future.

After nearly 18 months of non-stop experimentation and a “process more important than results” approach, which saw India thrashed in West Indies and South Africa and crashing out of the mini-World Cup in India, he now has in the wake of the team crashing out of the actual World Cup, a problem with almost the entire team, except it would seem a strangely quiet and non-communicative captain. He even plotted with Machiavellian cunning, and pre-planning to send an SMS to an obsequious journalist, who undoubtedly under instructions from Chappell was told to release its contents at just the right moment, in case things didn’t work out.

As befitting a politician of the lowest cunning, Chappell has no qualms about saying one thing in public and doing the exact opposite. After he had sent the SMS in mid February he still was saying things in media interviews like India have selected the best possible team and a very balanced team, that has great depth and flexibility and the ability to go all the way. Either he didn’t believe what he was saying then or he didn’t believe what he wrote in the SMS. Actually I don’t even know if this man believes in anything except his own self-interest.

He, to be fair, did say in an interview that being honest doesn’t pay in India . With the kind of slipperiness of tongue he possess one cannot fathom whether he meant that in India if you are honest you can get screwed or that only if you are dishonest can you get paid. In any case it does not matter what exactly he meant, because either implication would show that he is least qualified for one of the most sensitive jobs in Indian cricket, one that requires, immense patience, understanding, tact, ability to inspire and above all honesty. Honesty with your players, with your employers, with the fans of the country you represent. Something that is totally alien it would seem to Greg Chappell’s way of doing business. And even his inability to be honest he has, typically, blamed on India . This should have been the cue for his immediate firing. The man will own up to nothing and blame everything on everybody and anybody but himself.

But the BCCI like the maharajas of old seem content to play their political chess games while Indian cricket is slowly hollowed out from inside. April 6th will reveal whether the BCCI still has any interest in the well-being of Indian cricket. On Friday this fan who has been following Indian cricket for well over three decades will know whether it will still be worthwhile supporting the team. I hope the wise men in the BCCI make the correct decision, and save Indian cricket, before it is too late. But I will not be surprised if they instead continue to be mesmerized by the man they dubbed “Guru Greg”.