“We are not playing for milestones.”
“We are playing as a team, no room for star culture. Team comes first.”
“There has to be flexibility among batsmen in regard to their batting position.”
“Players should try to contribute with both bat and ball.”
“Fitness is non-negotiable.”
These are not exact quotes, but they are thoughts. And you would think they are India head coach Gautam Gambhir’s. Today’s generation wouldn’t know, but actually, the former India coach and Australia legend Greg Chappell wanted exactly the same things from the team back in 2005-2007.
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And guess what? He failed terribly and was later sacked. Because the cricket culture in India was different back then. It was big on stardom, rather high on stardom. The team was packed with stars. Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh — and what have you!
His attempt to change the Indian cricket culture led to his departure. Players refused to cooperate. Tendulkar was not happy with his batting position in ODIs. During Chappell’s tenure, an Indian innings was declared with him just six short of a double century. Ganguly, who was instrumental to Chappell’s hiring, later fell really foul of the Aussie after it emerged he wanted the then India captain out of the team for good for his lack of runs.
He appeared to be promoting Irfan Pathan as an allrounder but during that period Pathan lost his pace as well as swing. And sadly Chappell was blamed. Mohammad Kaif has said it on record that he didn’t take kindly to several fielding suggestions by Chappell because he thought he was already doing well in that aspect of his game.
All stars and no shine. Chappell was made the scapegoat!
And because of that, India failed to deliver. All stars but no shine. In the 2007 World Cup, things were so bad between players and Chappell that the team crashed out of the first round itself, losing to Bangladesh along the way. India had not won any ICC World Cup since 1983.
Today, one understands it better. A team that doesn’t play as a team, where players don’t have roles defined for them, where players can’t play multiple roles… its chances of winning big trophies are next to nothing.
Of course, Chappell didn’t understand the local culture and went a bit too aggressively about things. He would speak his mind in his interactions with the media. The Indian stars refused to take that, particularly from a foreigner. Say what you will, Chappell was an honest man. He indeed came here to win trophies and make India a major, trophy-winning force in international cricket. He was made to leave in the end. India wasn’t ready for him yet, it has to be said.
But his ideas stayed. There were some buyers for them, for sure. During MS Dhoni’s tenure, a lot of them were implemented, and India went on to win three ICC trophies between 2007-2013: 2007 T20 World Cup, 2011 World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy. Virat Kohli also embraced those ethos, and he achieved extraordinary success in Test cricket.
During his tenure, India became the first team from the Indian subcontinent to win a Test rubber in Australia in 2018-19. They did it again a couple of years later with Ajinkya Rahane captaining in four out of five Tests. Things went from strength to strength during Rohit Sharma’s stint.
Today, one can say Gambhir has totally executed Chappell’s ideas. He appears to be following to a tee. And in less than a year, India have won two ICC trophies and the team looks absolutely unbeatable in white-ball cricket. Like the 1970’s West Indies. Like Australia from 1999-2007. He has the same brash attitude, too. But nobody appears to be complaining much. Why? He has the BCCI’s support.
Anyway, India may have taken some years to truly implement and execute Chappell’s ideas, but they have come around alright, haven’t they?
