Chappell said More was involved in team building for the World Cup from the time he joined as coach, and Vengsarkar’s appointment derailed the ‘process’.
MUMBAI: It was expected to be a player-bashing session. In the end, it turned out to be a BCCI-bashing exercise by Greg Chappell, the outgoing India coach, who accepted the board’s invitation to become a consultant with the National Cricket Academy.
After the hullabaloo, speculation, and name-dropping in the media precipitated by India’s early departure from the West Indies, Chappell’s report would have left Sachin Tendulkar red-faced. For it did not blame senior cricketers for the disaster. Chappell has, in fact, found fault with the Board of Control for Cricket in India. He also admitted his own failure.
Making a PowerPoint presentation, in all senses, Chappell told board officials that it was a mistake to change the selection committee chairman six months before the Cup. According to sources in the BCCI, Chappell told Sharad Pawar and others senior functionaries that the BCCI should have persisted with Kiran More. He said More was involved in team building for the World Cup from the time he joined as coach, and Dilip Vengsarkar’s appointment derailed the ‘process’.
Vengsarkar succeeded More when the latter completed his three-year term last September. The chemistry between More and Chappell was agreeable; during their watch, players such as Sourav Ganguly and Zaheer Khan were ousted from the squad.
But both staged comebacks when Vengsarkar took over.
Chappell said the team picked for the World Cup was not equipped to compete with the best in the world. He said the main problem was the absence of young players in the squad.
Chappell stressed that India’s most prominent shortcoming was running between the wickets. He said that attribute could have been improved with youngsters. He, however, did not name seniors in the report, nor did he dwell on their alleged ‘mafia-like’ behaviour.
Chappell, who used a CD for his presentation, took a dig at the board by saying he would not email the report because he had learnt a few lessons on that count. He is believed to have handed hard copies of the report to officials.
Those present at the meeting with Pawar included BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah, joint secretary MP Pandove, treasurer N Srinivasan, and former presidents IS Bindra and Raj Singh Dungarpur.
In his report, Sanjay Jagdale, team manager, concurred with Chappell’s view that the team should have had more youngsters, and said the World Cup debacle was a collective failure. Though he blamed the batsmen for the poor showing in the Caribbean, he did not name anyone.
Vengsarkar said the selection committee would spot a pool of young players and groom them for the next Cup. For his part, Rahul Dravid accepted the responsibility for the team’s failure.
The four key members of the squad were asked to make separate presentations, of which Chappell’s was the longest and Vengsarkar’s the shortest.
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