G Rajaraman has this post on the changing philosophy of Team India.
My two cents - Chappell has no equal in the sound byte sweepstakes. John Buchanan is a distant second.
Virender Sehwag talks of fitness, batting and the World Cup- here.
My two cents - Gee Veeru, since when did looking fitter equal being fitter?
Irfan will make it to the World Cup after all!!
My two cents - Thank God the farce has ended.
Dilip Vengsarkar sound bytes - here
On captaincy - here.I hope someone is reading this.
Indian Eves lose against New Zealand. West Zone beat Central Zone.
BTW, I have been looking at all the interviews and all the sound bytes from the players and the management since after the last ODI at Vizag. The common refrain thru all these sound bytes is about "how united this team is"- is that something that needs to be shouted from the rooftops?
PS: - I cannot put my finger on it nor can I substantiate it - but I get the odd feeling that there is some sort of power struggle between the Team Management and the Selectors.
Only time will tell.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Today..
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10 comments:
I realise you are a bit of a Chappellskeptic (now theres a word.... i think i might use it more.... :) ), but im a bit puzzled here.
If Chappell doesn't really believe what he's saying and what he has been doing, and if he's just applying the spin... why is everyone else putting up with him?
Also, do you seriously think that the kind of mediocrity that is implied by the above assumption can be realistically made about one of the games great cricketers?
Kartikeya,
I make no assumption of either Chappell the man or Chappell the coach. Nor do I believe he is applying the spin.Nor do I dispute what he says.
It is in the "doing" that I have issues with.
Talking the good talk does not necessarily translate to walking the good walk.
Chappell makes for interesting reading, but I will be damned if he makes for a very good coach.
There is a yawning gap between his words and the state of Indian cricket today.
Let me ask you this - Are we a better team today than we were in the John Wright era?
A great cricketer does not necessarily translate into a great coach.
And a man of ideas does not necessarily make him the best person to implement those ideas.
If that insinuates mediocrity- I plead guilty.
Homer......
My point is that Chappell is talking about things which have already been done, not about what he is going to do in the future.
Also, the selection committee and Rahul Dravid (and now officially Tendulkar, my guess is that before it was unofficial but Tendulkar still had a strong say, which he exercised rarely) are equally responsible for this.
I wrote the Chappellskeptics article by the way. :)
Homer.... to answer youre question:
Yes we are a better team than we were in the Ganguly era. The results are better, both in terms of consistency and in terms of new ground being broken. Its as simple as that. And this is inspite of Tendulkar the Test player being in decline and Tendulkar to ODI player being only sporadically available.
My two cents - Chappell has no equal in the sound byte sweepstakes. John Buchanan is a distant second.
Thank you, Homer, for visiting my blog, offering a link and making a comment on your own blog about how the coach has no equal in the quote sweepstakes. I cannot challenge your right to express your opinion but I find it interesting that while you are passing judgement on Greg Chappell, you are also hinting that sports journalists only look for quotes that sound good. I am afraid that is far from the truth.
It was not the easiest of things to get Greg to talk to me on a subject like team bonding. And Kiran More confirmed that Greg wasn't talking through his hat.
Regards
Raj
Raj,
Thanks for your comments on my blog.
It is not my intent to suggest that sports journalists are only looking for quotes that sound good.
If it has been so implied, I apologize.
I make no assumption of either Chappell the man or Chappell the coach. Nor do I dispute what he says.
It is in the "doing" that I have issues with.
If team bonding is paramount, then why these reports in the press ( of all hues) on the poor communication between the team management and the team?
If building the team is important, why aren't all options available being explored? Why this stubborn refusal to get a bowling coach in to the squad?
I have written about my take on the processes in the Indian team.
If we moved away from a process centric approach to a people centric approach, was the transition done in a phased manner? Or did we panic and make team selections?
Again, I apologize if I have caused any grief.It was not my intention.
Cheers
Homer, Thanks a lot!!! there seems nothing wrong with two cents, just my thought!!
regards
ugyen
Thanks, Homer, for your warm response to and on my blog. You don't need to apologise at all for anything.
It is just that I thought it was important to make my own position clear. For anyone has to be leading the 'sounbyte sweepstakes', the media has to play along, doesn't it.
We all have issues with some of the methods of Greg Chappell (you can find some of pieces on those lines in the archives at www.outlookindia.com). But again, we must look at issues and not individuals. If there are issues that are worthy of being criticised, we must. On the contrary, if there is something that deserves praise, we must not hold ourselves back. For long, we have looked at people and made up our minds whether we must support them or not.
I have spoken to a number of players in the recent months -- on the premise that they will have a grouse against the team management. But none of them has a word against the team management. My own take is that some of us in the media are looking for that sensational story that will grab the eyeballs.
I believe many options were tried and that is why the team is where it is today. Besides, the fact that a bowling coach has not been added to the team's support staff does not mean that team building has suffered because of that.
The team is quite process driven and over a period of time even the selectors have moved away from the player-centric approach. Having said that, it is not possible to shake off years of player-centric selection and I guess the churning will take time to compelete.
Homer,
Thanks for your comments on my blog, too (and for driving some traffic to my blog).
I have followed Kartikeya and your discussion on the subject at his blog cricketingview.
I can understand your reservations on the way Chappell has gone about implementing his vision and I agree that much of the discussions on Chappell's methods has been construed as a criticism of the man. It is not a personal attack much of the time.
You write an interesting blog, of course... and it is lovely being able to read that.
Regards
Raj
PS: I guess I had clicked on the wrong comments link when I just said thank you!
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