'Guru' Greg's pearls of wisdom

You would be forgiven for thinking that poor old Gregory Chappell was the most tortured soul in India during his eventful 2 year tenure as the national team's coach from mid 2005 to March this year.The ''Guru'' had to suffer,what according to him,was racial abuse from hostile crowds and furthermore had to make do with an ''old and selfish'' team which had been handed to him for the much publicized but eventually disastrous 2007 World Cup campaign.

The Australian,whose tumultuous stint as coach was marred by a massive spat with then captain Sourav Ganguly,the shocking descent of India's form in ODI's and less so in Tests,allegations of disrespect to crowds,leaks of confidential team talks and fears of factions within the team has made the above allegations in his new documentary titled ''Guru Greg'' to be telecast on Australia's ABC TV next week.

Chappell had resigned as India's coach after the ill-fated World Cup adventure in the Caribbean this March.Recently,the BCCI had extended an invitation to the former coach to be the mentor for young kids at Rajasthan's cricket academy and not surprisingly,now that the Aussie has accepted the invitation,it is understandable that the ''master strategist'' would seek to downplay his comments.

Australian newspaper ''The Herald Sun'' has this to say about him...''But despite the disillusionment and the many frustrations, he is still trying to help a nation in which cricket is treated like a religion. ''
And Chappell himself offers re-assuring words...''If they give us a free hand, which they are, I think we can set something up that will help them."
Ah profound kindness, thy name is Greg Chappell !

While some of his observations about the obvious presence of politics and lack of professionalism in India's cricket administration is undeniable, the truth remains that Greg Chappell,inspite of his ''vision'' and revolutionary coaching techniques failed to transform a bunch of talented youngsters and experienced statesmen into a force to reckon with,despite promising to do so from the very outset.
And perhaps the most distasteful thing to happen was that after the early World Cup exit,he washed his hands of the entire debacle,declining to accept responsibility.Surely the ''Guru'' could do better.

Moving on, one of my pet peeves has always been seeing the way in which world champions Australia conduct themselves on and off the field.While admittedly, no other side in the world can match up to Aussies in terms of sheer cricketing talent,application and dominance as their record over the last decade only proves; it's high time that the Aussies got a hold on their distasteful attitude which smacks of cockiness, arrogance and narcissism.
Surely fans can expect the champs to maintain an attitude that is truely representative of how a champion side should conduct itself.

Their captain Ricky Ponting has been crying hoarse over lack of competition from other teams and how the crowds haven't been turning up in large numbers to watch Test cricket at their grounds due to complete dominance by the champs over other teams in recent times.The Australians would do well to remember that the last Test defeat that they faced at home was against India in 2003-04.
The Sri Lankans haven't been able to challenge the Australians so far this summer.Let's see if the touring Indians can change the trend and put some of the inflated Aussie egos in place.