Chappell Interview on Money Matters and More
Chappell keen to place the emphasis on youth
By Richard Hobson
THERE are people in India who believe that Greg Chappell is a plant. They think that the national team’s coach is secretly helping his native Australia to retain the World Cup by keeping Sourav Ganguly and other experienced one-day players out of the team.
Others prefer to dismiss conspiracy theories and judge Chappell on his record. Before the sixth game in the seven-match series against England, which is scheduled to begin this morning, India had won 21 out of 30 one-day internationals since he took charge 11 months ago, including a record 15 in succession batting second. And this with a team undergoing significant rebuilding before the World Cup in the Caribbean next year.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni has usurped Sachin Tendulkar as India’s poster boy, his face smiling at every street corner it seems, promoting soap, mobile phones and motorbikes. Yuvraj Singh has matured into one of the best limited-overs batsmen in the world, while Irfan Pathan is becoming a genuine all-rounder in the shorter form.
“From experience, I know you ignore youth at your peril,” Chappell said. “A team can become too fixed and individuals become stale. I am not a selector, but I know the way I want to go. If I worked it out I would probably know nine or ten of the side for the World Cup, but I don’t want to think like that and get ideas embedded in my mind.”
Last year, Chappell and the selectors considered a template for the team. The coach then assessed the potential of the players available and began to allocate expanded roles. “Rather than go outside the group, we thought it would be simpler and more economic time-wise to add what we wanted from within,” he said.
“We identified the players we thought could become all-rounders. So while Yuvraj has worked on areas of his batting, his bowling has also come on. Pathan was another with that ability to offer more. Now he is in serious danger of being a good batsman as well as our opening bowler.”
Dhoni is another to impress. “There is a lot more depth to him than the façade and the brawn might suggest,” Chappell said. “He has a unique style of play and we don’t want to lose that, but he can also knock the ball around when he needs. By the time we get to the World Cup we think we can have a batsman there a bit like Michael Bevan [of Australia].”
With central contracts in place and the Board of Control for Cricket in India committing about a quarter of its revenue to players, the stars of tomorrow, such as Dhoni, will be millionaires many times over. Rahul Dravid, the captain, recently spoke to the team about dealing with the pressure that comes from demand on time.
“All cricketers nowadays have to make sure they don’t overdo the commercial side,” Chappell said. “The difference is that no other country has a billion people supporting them. The money is huge and it is great on the one hand but dangerous on the other. Like any era, it is all relative and the better players will cope.”
Tendulkar, 32, is the best role model of all, but a drop in form and a shoulder operation have raised questions about his future. “I have no doubt that Sachin will come back refreshed, like he did after his elbow injury last year,” Chappell said. “Just how, when and where is yet to be seen. It will depend a) on his body and b) on his mind.
“Knowing when to stop is a much more difficult decision for the modern player. When the money was not there, it was much easier to move on. But Sachin won’t need anyone to tell him when to go. He still has a role, especially as a mentor. Over the past few months he has been very helpful that way.
“We want to get everything from him in whatever time he has left. I know the World Cup is a target. That is why he had the operation when he did, and it was just as well because the problem was more serious than we thought. In the meantime, it has given us a chance to look at Suresh Raina, which just shows the silver linings you find.”
Chappell has found that many of his perceptions about India have changed since he took on the job. “The thing that strikes me about this group and India as a whole is the resilience of the people,” he said. “To go through what they go through every day is a struggle for most of them. It is reflected in cricket as a microcosm of the wider population.
“The press here spoke of a shattering loss in the final Test against Pakistan, but we bounced back and won the one-day series comfortably. We had another bad defeat to England in Mumbai [Bombay], but look at the one-day game since. I’m sure it comes from resilience built into their lives.” He cites another example, from the Test series, when the teams were forced to wait 4½ hours for a connecting flight in Delhi. “I was quite irritated and I know the England players were, too,” Chappell said. “Our blokes just pulled out their laptops, their books or their games without even shrugging their shoulders.
“I spoke to them about it afterwards, about the difference between the teams. They said that this was life in India and they have been getting on with it for years. They have to put up with inconveniences every day of their lives and they don’t fight them because they know they won’t win. And you can see it in their cricket. Nothing fazes them.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,426-2130188,00.html
Chappell keen to place the emphasis on youth
By Richard Hobson
THERE are people in India who believe that Greg Chappell is a plant. They think that the national team’s coach is secretly helping his native Australia to retain the World Cup by keeping Sourav Ganguly and other experienced one-day players out of the team.
Others prefer to dismiss conspiracy theories and judge Chappell on his record. Before the sixth game in the seven-match series against England, which is scheduled to begin this morning, India had won 21 out of 30 one-day internationals since he took charge 11 months ago, including a record 15 in succession batting second. And this with a team undergoing significant rebuilding before the World Cup in the Caribbean next year.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni has usurped Sachin Tendulkar as India’s poster boy, his face smiling at every street corner it seems, promoting soap, mobile phones and motorbikes. Yuvraj Singh has matured into one of the best limited-overs batsmen in the world, while Irfan Pathan is becoming a genuine all-rounder in the shorter form.
“From experience, I know you ignore youth at your peril,” Chappell said. “A team can become too fixed and individuals become stale. I am not a selector, but I know the way I want to go. If I worked it out I would probably know nine or ten of the side for the World Cup, but I don’t want to think like that and get ideas embedded in my mind.”
Last year, Chappell and the selectors considered a template for the team. The coach then assessed the potential of the players available and began to allocate expanded roles. “Rather than go outside the group, we thought it would be simpler and more economic time-wise to add what we wanted from within,” he said.
“We identified the players we thought could become all-rounders. So while Yuvraj has worked on areas of his batting, his bowling has also come on. Pathan was another with that ability to offer more. Now he is in serious danger of being a good batsman as well as our opening bowler.”
Dhoni is another to impress. “There is a lot more depth to him than the façade and the brawn might suggest,” Chappell said. “He has a unique style of play and we don’t want to lose that, but he can also knock the ball around when he needs. By the time we get to the World Cup we think we can have a batsman there a bit like Michael Bevan [of Australia].”
With central contracts in place and the Board of Control for Cricket in India committing about a quarter of its revenue to players, the stars of tomorrow, such as Dhoni, will be millionaires many times over. Rahul Dravid, the captain, recently spoke to the team about dealing with the pressure that comes from demand on time.
“All cricketers nowadays have to make sure they don’t overdo the commercial side,” Chappell said. “The difference is that no other country has a billion people supporting them. The money is huge and it is great on the one hand but dangerous on the other. Like any era, it is all relative and the better players will cope.”
Tendulkar, 32, is the best role model of all, but a drop in form and a shoulder operation have raised questions about his future. “I have no doubt that Sachin will come back refreshed, like he did after his elbow injury last year,” Chappell said. “Just how, when and where is yet to be seen. It will depend a) on his body and b) on his mind.
“Knowing when to stop is a much more difficult decision for the modern player. When the money was not there, it was much easier to move on. But Sachin won’t need anyone to tell him when to go. He still has a role, especially as a mentor. Over the past few months he has been very helpful that way.
“We want to get everything from him in whatever time he has left. I know the World Cup is a target. That is why he had the operation when he did, and it was just as well because the problem was more serious than we thought. In the meantime, it has given us a chance to look at Suresh Raina, which just shows the silver linings you find.”
Chappell has found that many of his perceptions about India have changed since he took on the job. “The thing that strikes me about this group and India as a whole is the resilience of the people,” he said. “To go through what they go through every day is a struggle for most of them. It is reflected in cricket as a microcosm of the wider population.
“The press here spoke of a shattering loss in the final Test against Pakistan, but we bounced back and won the one-day series comfortably. We had another bad defeat to England in Mumbai [Bombay], but look at the one-day game since. I’m sure it comes from resilience built into their lives.” He cites another example, from the Test series, when the teams were forced to wait 4½ hours for a connecting flight in Delhi. “I was quite irritated and I know the England players were, too,” Chappell said. “Our blokes just pulled out their laptops, their books or their games without even shrugging their shoulders.
“I spoke to them about it afterwards, about the difference between the teams. They said that this was life in India and they have been getting on with it for years. They have to put up with inconveniences every day of their lives and they don’t fight them because they know they won’t win. And you can see it in their cricket. Nothing fazes them.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,426-2130188,00.html