Ganguly Vs Chapell
Now for the hot topic, I know I’m treading into dangerous territories but cant help it. I thought that the whole controversy did not concern me and even though I had a soft spot for Ganguly and I wanted him to be given a last chance but as long as India was winning I was happy. So what has changed since then? Well for starters, I’ve started to dislike Chapell. Especially since the finger episode. 
To be the coach of Team India (lately instead of the Indian National Team or Simply Indian Team, this suave, commercially more attractive name has been more in use) was never a cakewalk. An outsider can never understand the god like status of our cricketers enjoy, the politics, the emotions… attached with the game in India, so the best thing to do is shut your mouth up. John Wright had lots of issues with the players, but that never came up in the open and yet he was a part of the resurgent Indian team which he helped take to new heights including a World-cup final berth. Chapell should take a feather out of his predecessor’s cap, and things might be better turn out to be even better just like he promises. All his preparations are focussed on the World-cup 2007, and he is being given quite a free hand to run his show. The selectors at least are supporting him fully lets hope he can keep up to all our expectations.
But is that all to his responsibility? Is a coach not accountable to the people? Just because the National has been dropped and the words ‘Indian Team’ rearranged to Team India does not change the fact that he is still coach of the national team, the pride of millions of Indians is attached with each win and the sorrow of millions others with its defeat. But for Bengal, with Ganguly at the helm of affairs for so long and being the most successful one at that, there is personal pride as well. The Eden garden crowd has always been known to be emotionally more attached to the game, be it the World cup 96, Asia cup 1999(I don’t remember the exact year, but I do remember the commotion after Tendulkars runout in that match), 1983 Test against west Indies (where the world cup winning Indian team had collapsed inside of 3 days), they worship there heroes and hate their villains, and a person who they see as the main cause of their hero (who incidentally has scored 3 hundreds in his last 4 1st class matches, and taken wickets too, including a 5 wicket haul) not making it into the team shld have been ready to be greeted the way he was. Not that I’m supporting their behaviour, but my point is that two wrongs never make a right. Being the coach of the team u have to maintain the dignity of the post, the mob/crowd is called so because they have that mentality, but when a public figure makes a remark or does something which is not ethically or morally correct he should be ready to face the brunt and not hide behind an improbable excuse.
In a press conference in Mumbai after the Eden match a laughable excuse was given by the team manager "All the team members and coach Greg Chappell have enormous respect for the Indian fans and I am repeating what I said to the media in Calcutta that there was no such incident or any attempt by the coach." "He had injured his finger while giving fielding practice to the team members and was only attending to it in the team bus."
That is a judgement people who have seen the clip can make on their own — whether an injury to the middle finger is tended by sticking it out of the window of a bus.
My simple point is that, it was not only Chapell who had to face the angered crowd, the players fielding near the boundary were treated with many more niceties, but they did not deem it necessary or correct to react, then by making such a gesture what the hell does this descendant of rouges wants to prove.
To be the coach of Team India (lately instead of the Indian National Team or Simply Indian Team, this suave, commercially more attractive name has been more in use) was never a cakewalk. An outsider can never understand the god like status of our cricketers enjoy, the politics, the emotions… attached with the game in India, so the best thing to do is shut your mouth up. John Wright had lots of issues with the players, but that never came up in the open and yet he was a part of the resurgent Indian team which he helped take to new heights including a World-cup final berth. Chapell should take a feather out of his predecessor’s cap, and things might be better turn out to be even better just like he promises. All his preparations are focussed on the World-cup 2007, and he is being given quite a free hand to run his show. The selectors at least are supporting him fully lets hope he can keep up to all our expectations.
But is that all to his responsibility? Is a coach not accountable to the people? Just because the National has been dropped and the words ‘Indian Team’ rearranged to Team India does not change the fact that he is still coach of the national team, the pride of millions of Indians is attached with each win and the sorrow of millions others with its defeat. But for Bengal, with Ganguly at the helm of affairs for so long and being the most successful one at that, there is personal pride as well. The Eden garden crowd has always been known to be emotionally more attached to the game, be it the World cup 96, Asia cup 1999(I don’t remember the exact year, but I do remember the commotion after Tendulkars runout in that match), 1983 Test against west Indies (where the world cup winning Indian team had collapsed inside of 3 days), they worship there heroes and hate their villains, and a person who they see as the main cause of their hero (who incidentally has scored 3 hundreds in his last 4 1st class matches, and taken wickets too, including a 5 wicket haul) not making it into the team shld have been ready to be greeted the way he was. Not that I’m supporting their behaviour, but my point is that two wrongs never make a right. Being the coach of the team u have to maintain the dignity of the post, the mob/crowd is called so because they have that mentality, but when a public figure makes a remark or does something which is not ethically or morally correct he should be ready to face the brunt and not hide behind an improbable excuse.
In a press conference in Mumbai after the Eden match a laughable excuse was given by the team manager "All the team members and coach Greg Chappell have enormous respect for the Indian fans and I am repeating what I said to the media in Calcutta that there was no such incident or any attempt by the coach." "He had injured his finger while giving fielding practice to the team members and was only attending to it in the team bus."
That is a judgement people who have seen the clip can make on their own — whether an injury to the middle finger is tended by sticking it out of the window of a bus.
My simple point is that, it was not only Chapell who had to face the angered crowd, the players fielding near the boundary were treated with many more niceties, but they did not deem it necessary or correct to react, then by making such a gesture what the hell does this descendant of rouges wants to prove.
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