By Anil
April 4 2007

Greg Chappel is forced out of Indian cricket in the wake of a disastrous World Cup for India, and a damaging public spat with legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. Greg Chappel started his career with Indian cricket controversially when he publicly picked a fight with Sourav Ganguly, India's greatest captain, the man who was primarily responsible for giving Chappel the job of coach in Indian cricket.

At that time, Chappel wrote a long memo full of lies and slanderous accusations about Ganguly to BCCI as a report of the Indian team's tour to Zimbabwe. The Australian is also suspected to have leaked the memo to his friends in the media, in an attempt to embarass Ganguly on the world stage.

A subsequent enquiry by the BCCI found that much of Chappel's memo had no basis in truth, and was rejected. However, the BCCI administration changed at about the same time, and Chappel found an ally in new BCCI chief Sharad Pawar, a man who was bitterly opposed to Jagmohan Dalmiya, and Ganguly was dropped from the team.

Chappel's behavior has been marked by the same traits throughout his tenure: lying, leaking to the media, and public spats with influential figures in Indian cricket.

Little wonder then that his end came as a result of being forced out after his outrageous mudslinging against Sachin Tendulkar and several other senior members of the Indian team.

In between, Chappel did very little coaching and kicked up countless controversies. Indian audiences will never forget the time when he gave a middle finger to 100,000 fans in the Eden Gardens cricket stadium after they booed him. He kept up a relentless campaign of leaking inaccurate stories to the media even after being admonished by the BCCI and told to restrict his comments to cricket.

His refusal to allow a bowling coach to be part of the coaching staff, instead stubbornly insisting that his friend Ian Frazer, a purported "biomechanic", was sufficient to coach the bowlers, has puzzled and angered many in the Indian cricket fraternity. His infamous "experimentation" -- with the team, the batting order, the bowling composition -- often at the cost of stability and player confidence -- has irritated and baffled. His "coaching" comprised bizarre techniques such as De Bono, crawling under chairs, climbing hills, and other assorted lunacies -- everything but actual cricket practice and planning. All this was part of Chappel's failed "Process".

Chappel's South Australia staff had forewarned India about his destructive tendencies; a warning that India should have heeded given Chappel's failure there as coach for 5 ruinous years when he repeatedly churned the team, discarded good players, and angered the fraternity.

After Ganguly forced his way back into the team on the back of good first-class performances, a displeased Chappel who had fought his selection tooth and nail but failed, said "Let's see what he does on the field." Ganguly has proved the most consistent of the Indian batsmen since, and Chappel first took the credit for his success, then in his final days, blamed him along with Tendulkar in a desperate attempt to hang on as coach.

Finally, after taking India to first-round exits in both the ICC Champions Trophy and the World Cup in rapid succession, after the same team had gotten to the finals of both tournaments before he joined the team as coach, Chappel's time was up. His targetting of most of the best players in the Indian team hastened his demise, bringing down the curtain on an inglorious, disgraceful passage of Indian cricket.

Good riddance to the obnoxious and arrogant Chappel. Without his venomous influence, Indian cricket will attempt to again rebuild and reunite.

Mr Chappel, don't let the door hit you on the way out!