By ICF Staff
August 29 2006

Ex-India coach John Wright, always diplomatic and well-spoken during his four-year stint with Team India, has got himself into hot water with several sensational disclosures one year after leaving the job. Most who follow Indian cricket would recognize current coach, Australian Greg Chappell, as a loose-lipped maverick who seems to care little about the impression he leaves with fans, ex-cricketers, and authorities alike. There has not been a dull moment with the controversial Aussie, as seen from his ongoing conflicts with several top Indian cricketers, an entire stadium of fans in Kolkata (whom he infamously and furiously gave the middle finger, caught by TV cameras in the process and attracting widespread outrage thereafter) and countless media interviews in which he has put foot in mouth time and again. By contrast his predecessor, New Zealander John Wright, came across as a suave, diplomatic, and skilful coach who conducted himself immaculately in public, and was perceived to be handling himself professionally in private. It is therefore disappointing to see John Wright now getting caught up in controversies and slanging matches as a result of his book on Indian cricket, released just one year after his exit from the team at a time when most of the cricketers and selectors he talks about in the book are still actively engaged in Indian cricket -- unlike himself. Clearly, Wright has a potentially huge money-spinner from the massive Indian market, a country of one billion of whom 300 million are Engish-speaking, many of them cricket fans. If the book proves to be popular, as it almost certainly will given his highly successful partnership with India's greatest captain Sourav Ganguly, Wright will be laughing all the way to the bank regardless of the many people he would have displeased by disclosing private matters inside and outside of the dressing room. It is worth asking if John Wright would have made such sensational disclosures if he was ex-coach of Australia, England or even his home country New Zealand. It seems unlikely that he would have taken them on in the same way. The saying goes that what is inside the dressing room should stay in the dressing room, and what is discussed in selectorial meetings should be considered inside information. John Wright even speaks critically of captain Sourav Ganguly, whose aggressive style overshadowed the taciturn Kiwi, and often rode rough over his opinions. Wright speaks admiringly of Ganguly's tendency to ignore demands from officials he considered unreasonable, and of his mental disintegration of Aussie captain Steve Waugh during Wright's first year as coach. However, Wright comes across as resentful of Ganguly running the team -- Ganguly, who made no secret of the fact that he considered himself the boss and essentially treated Wright as nothing more than a member of his team whose job was to support the cricketers. Wright's ill-timed criticism of not just the captain and selectors, but also legendary Indian ex-cricketer and now chairman of ICC's cricket committee, Sunil Gavaskar, puts him in very poor light. Several selectors have responded to these selected excerpts of Wright's book put out by his publishers by asking why Wright was silent and uncommunicative during meetings if he had so many problems with the decisions made. It is a fair question. If Wright can make accusations, he needs to take on these questions. But in the midst of an ugly slanging match started by a man considered a professional, a more essential question is why Wright chooses to make his sensational revelations whilst so many of the people he has criticized are still active in Indian cricket. Wright has even said that he is supportive of his successor Chappell, going so far as to say that India is in "good hands", blithely overlooking all the trouble this loose cannon has managed to get himself and the team into. If Wright can only say good things about the outrageous Aussie, and bad things about Ganguly and Gavaskar, that betrays his intentions. If Wright honestly intended to bring up issues faced by him and the Indian team, he would first and foremost talk about biased umpires and referees that balked the Indians on countless occasions, most notably against the Aussies. Steve Bucknor and Billy Bowden together ensured that India would not defeat Australia in Australia in a test series. Bucknor repeatedly targetted Tendulkar with bad LBWs, while Bowden went to embarassing lows to ensure a good exit for Steve Waugh's final Test. Both umpires have starred frequently in matches where India got a raw deal. Referees such as Chris Broad, Clive Lloyd, and Mike Procter have punished Ganguly and other Indian cricketers for the most marginal reasons, while turning a blind eye to much worse from Australia and England. Why not speak up about that, Mr. Wright? Or is the ICC too dangerous for you to be honest about, while Indians are easy targets? Wright must remember that he owes loyalty to Indian cricket first. After his own tiny nation New Zealand rejected him as coach, the giant of world cricket brought him in and gave him visibility and exposure he could not have dreamed of, even had his home country hired him. His stint with India culminated with being appointed coach of the Rest of the World team in the recent Superseries, an acknowledgment of the exposure he had gained with India. To see Wright burning bridges and going down in flames is unpleasant and anticlimactic. It is not too late to retract the book and edit portions of it which have rubbed his former colleagues the wrong way, and he should consider doing just that.