Greg Chappell, the former India cricket team coach, has written to Australia skipper Tim Paine after the poor behavior in the Sydney Test on day 5.
Tim Paine and the Australian cricket team’s behavior came for intense criticism after the end of the Sydney Test against India. The Australian cricket team, in particular Tim Paine, did not help themselves by showing the desperation to win on the final day. Tim Paine was involved in a tense banter with Ravichandran Ashwin. Towards the end of the match, Ravichandran Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari stitched a partnership that lasted 42 overs and helped India save the Test. In the period of the partnership, there was unwanted aggression shown by Matthew Wade and Tim Paine. All the hard work of the last 18 months in which Australia were working hard on their ‘nice guy’ image was undone.
Reacting to the incident in Sydney, former India cricket team coach and Australia batting great has penned an open letter to Tim Paine in the Sydney Morning Herald. In the letter, Greg Chappell gave his version of why personal abuse is not warranted. “Abuse is not acceptable in any workplace and talk, in my opinion, is cheap. It does not show one’s strength. Rather, it displays a weakness of character. I urge you to impress on the team to let the bat and ball do the talking and set better examples to millions of impressionable little boys and girls, lest they start imitating the worst instincts and actions of their sporting heroes. This will be the greatest legacy that you can leave. You have led Australia with flair, courage, and humour and have contributed immensely in rebuilding the image of Australian cricket following the events in Cape Town, three years ago. I urge you to keep leading in the way that you have been, since taking over the captaincy,” Greg Chappell wrote.
Tim Paine apologises
Speaking after the end of the Sydney Test, skipper Tim Paine apologised for the way how the team behaved on Monday and stated that his own leadership was not good enough. "It was a poor reflection of that. My leadership was not good enough. I let the pressure of the game get to me. It affected my mood and performance," Paine said. In addition to the dropped catches, Tim Paine did not help himself when he had an angry outburst with on-field umpire Paul Wilson over Cheteshwar Pujara not being given out by the third umpire after only one side of the review camera was being used to base the decision. Following the outburst, Tim Paine was fined 15 percent of his match fee for the action.
However, the criticism did not stop there. Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar criticised the actions of Tim Paine by saying his days as captain ‘were numbered’.
"If you allow the Indian team to bat 130-odd overs without getting wickets...this is a very good Australian attack. The bowling changes, the field placements, everything could have made a difference to the result. Tim Paine was more interested in talking to the batsman rather than his field placing and bowling changes. So, I won't be surprised if there is a change in the Australian captaincy after the series is over," Gavaskar had told India Today after the end of the game in Sydney.
On Thursday, Australia skipper Tim Paine responded to the criticism and said Sunil Gavaskar is entitled to his opinion, but it does not affect the Australian team one bit. "I am not going to get into it. Going back and forth with Sunil Gavaskar, do not think I am going to win that. He is entitled to his opinion, it does not affect us one bit. If anything, it is adding to the Test match. Sunny can keep saying what he wants to say, but in the end, we do not have anything to do with him," said Paine.
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