The modern thinking Indian

So finally Greg Chappell resigns as coach of the Indian cricket team. His tenure saw a lot of ups and downs for the team, culimnating in the truly disastrous performance of the team during the World Cup. Not sure whether this is good or bad for Indian cricket as a whole.
His has a been remarkable tenure of 22 months; starting with great promise, and ending in pure disaster with the entire team against him. One thing is sure, he caused a great deal of excitement in the time that he was on top. First the entire battle with Saurav Ganguly over his performance and final ouster from the team. That ended in a great victory for Greg Chappell and the expectation that now that he is totally in charge of the team, maybe the performance of the team will improve. He added innovations such as focusing the team more strongly on net practise, also introducing a bio-mechanist Ian Frazer. However, the team only went from bad to worse, and each time, fans were reassured that no matter, the world cup is where India will make its mark.
And now we know where the India team stands. At current ranking, they will be somewhere at the bottom of known cricket playing countries. This world cup also resulted in a lot of reputations being shattered. Sachin Tendulkar, even having scored lowly before the world cup, still went into the tournament as a demi-god, but has come out with his reputation severly tarnished. There are now calls for his removal from the team, something that would have been impossible to think just a month ago.
Is it all due to the coach? I would not think so. Unlike games like football or basketball, the coach in cricket does not have the same kind of authority. It is the captain who matters more in day to day matters. And with the kind of batting performances by the India batting line-up, I very much doubt whether a coach could indeed have done anything great. What is required is more accountability, and ensuring that current performance is the only true criteria for a person to be in the team.
Now the board will go through the whole routine of trying to get a new coach, but as long as the current players wield the power that they do and there is no accountability, a new coach is not going to do any wonders. What is needed is a very active league that keeps on throwing up good players, such that there is always a threat to the current national players. And knowing how important endorsements are, it would be good for advertisers to start putting performance parameters in contracts.
An article about Chappell's resignation.

Greg Chappell's 22-month tempestuous tenure as India's cricket coach ended on Wednesday when he resigned after a bitter undeclared war of words with senior players including an anguished Sachin Tendulkar who said he had been 'shattered' by his criticism.
Under fire after India's shocking exit from the World Cup, the feisty Australian caved in only 26 days before his contract was due to end and e-mailed his resignation to the BCCI whose Working Committee meets here from Friday for a post-mortem of the team's poor showing.
In the days preceding his resignation, Chappell, speaking under the cover of "sources" close to him, attacked senior players for their attitude and accused them of behaving like "mafia" against junior players.

Labels: Cricket, India