One of them, Ganguly or Chappell is likely to go. But it will take a lot more to cleanse the malaise in Indian cricket, says Ayaz Memon
The Chappell Report, which began as a quiet email from remote Bulawayo in Zimbabwe, looks set to redefine not just Indian cricket but perhaps also the nation. It is unlikely that any missive has caused so much controversy, confusion, chaos, consternation in any sphere of life in modern India. It has already left the country divided.
Back home, Sourav Ganguly has been discreet in his responses. He expressed hope that his team would not be dragged into the controversy. “Keep the team and the boys away from it,” he said after reaching his hometown Kolkata. “They are all aware, but they are all in different situations,” he said.
But coach Greg Chappell’s six-page mail to BCCI president Ranbir Singh Mahendra – the complete text of which is in DNA’s possession — is a devastating indictment of the captain. He shows Ganguly to be paranoid about his place in the team, vengeful and given to chicanery. He claims Ganguly is unfit to play the game at the highest level, and makes it plain that the captain’s attitude is so bad that it affects the team adversely. In plain words, he wants him out of the team that he wants to build for the 2007 World Cup.
Ganguly’s supporters will blame Chappell’s outburst as vendetta because the Indian captain went to the media and disclosed that he had been asked to step down from the first Test against Zimbabwe. But the 2615-word scathing email, which was sent to the BCCI president on September 18 (Ganguly’s controversial TV interview was on September 16), is structured in its litany of complaints, and so graphic in detail, that the Review Committee, which meets on Tuesday next, will have its plate full for debate.
Clearly there have been major issues on the field and in the dressing room, which neither the BCCI administrators nor the selectors can duck any longer. Surely more skeletons are going to tumble out of the cupboard. But there are also other issues which need answers.
Why has the board and the selection committee ignored Chappell’s complaints for two months? When the bust-up between Ganguly and Chappell in Bulawayo was public knowledge, how come Ranbir Singh Mahendra did not deem it fit to open his inbox to check the mail from the coach for six days? How come contents of the email were leaked on the day the board’s AGM was scheduled?
From all accounts Chappell and Ganguly have been locked in an end game for some time now. One of them is likely to go. But it will take a lot more than just sacking a coach or captain to cleanse the malaise in Indian cricket.
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