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Chappell's 'report' targets seniors


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Chappell's 'report' targets seniors TIMES NEWS NETWORK / Joseph Hoover PrintCommentMail BANGALORE, April 1: Coach Greg Chappell's gist of report points that the senior players had no respect for the management. One is not sure if captain Rahul Dravid would face the Board's music, but Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh are bound to answer a few uncomfortable questions. Sanjay Jagdale's tour report should augment Chappell's list of complaints. Returning from the tour of Sri Lanka last year, Jagdale, as manager, had briefed BCCI about the rub-ins amongst the ranks, which was not taken too seriously. That is the reason why India returned home within a fortnight of the 2007 World Cup campaign. On any other day, India should have walloped Bangladesh. But on the fateful day in Port of Spain (March 17), Dravid, influenced by some senior cricketers, chose to go against Chappell's recommendation. The story goes thus. In the team meeting on the eve of the match, Chappell had suggested that India put Bangladesh in if Dravid were to win the toss. Dravid wondered whether it would be wise to bat first. That hint was enough for the senior batsmen to stubbornly insist that they hit first as they needed batting practice before the Super Eight. But the batsmen came a cropper, setting their rivals a modest 191 to surpass, which the Bangladeshi brigade achieved without much ado. Their confidence and ego deflated, they were flat against the spirited Sri Lankans, bringing the curtain down on their World Cup campaign. Now the ball is in BCCI's court ? it is for it to take a call.

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Re: Chappell's 'report' targets seniors Cut and Paste from PP's blog ----Naming names "There are five players in the team whose attitude needs to be sorted out," the official stressed. When asked to name the players, he suggested names like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh and Ajit Agarkar. He further added the need to rope in more youngsters under skipper Rahul Dravid. "There is nothing wrong with the team as such, but we are convinced that it is the attitude of the players that affected the performance. When we meet on April 6, we will go into all the factors in a detailed manner that contributed to our poor show," the official promised. He also suspected groupism had a huge impact on the field. "They didn't gel well and also didn't play as a team. There were a few who even played for themselves and didn't have much respect for some of the other members of the squad." What is most surprising about the above clip, from this story, that I read over my morning coffee? For me, simply this: it is the first time, at least that I know of, that someone -- even an anonymous someone -- has been prepared to name Sachin Tendulkar in this context. Been making calls ever since, and as with so much to do with Indian cricket, what you hear depends on who you speak to, and no two versions are even remotely alike. Yet, one story gets repeated, by several unrelated quarters -- and my best guess, since I know the people from whom this came, is there is a big chunk of truth in it. It was before the game in Bermuda. The Indians were in the nets, and Sourav Ganguly was batting. He asked the bowlers -- Zaheer, Agarkar and Sreesanth -- to pitch the ball up and cut out the bouncers (whether it is because he doesn't like being bounced, or he wanted to practice his driving, depends on who was telling the story -- I heard both, and am inclined to leave the 'why' alone). At some point, as Sree was walking back to the top of his mark, Zaheer and Agarkar asked him to bounce. Sree ran in and bowled the full length; on his follow through, he went up to the batsman and asked if he wanted him to bowl bouncers. No, Ganguly told him with some, um, vehemence. Sorry, said Sree, I asked because they told me you wanted me to. Ganguly then chewed out the other two bowlers who, pissed that Sree had fingered them, later gave him a substantial -- and on this family forum, unmentionable -- earful. If it had ended there, it would have been one of those things. But next day, when the Indians played Bermuda, Sree was deputed to the boundary line at one end, to provide drinks and towels to the bowler at the end of each over. At the end of the first over, Zaheer wandered over to the third man boundary, Sree greeted him with drinks, and Zaheer pushed him away with a 'F*&# off, I don't need anything from you you *&#*)@(...' A shocked and upset Sreesanth retreated to the dressing room and, for a while, was inconsolable. The other stories I heard, I'll avoid -- all of them are from one or another source, and I have no independent confirmation of any of them.

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Re: Chappell's 'report' targets seniors Why would Zaheer tell Sree to bounce Gangs? I thought he was a major Gangs fan boy. Doesn't make sense. And if true, his attitude needs to be redressed. He's barely been back 3 months and is acting like an idiot again.

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Re: Chappell's 'report' targets seniors

Why would Zaheer tell Sree to bounce Gangs? I thought he was a major Gangs fan boy. Doesn't make sense. And if true' date=' his attitude needs to be redressed. He's barely been back 3 months and is acting like an idiot again.[/quote'] Perhaps a ploy to get Sree in trouble ? Who has the most motivation to keep Sree out of the squad ?
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Guest dada_rocks

Re: Chappell's 'report' targets seniors Are we still listenign to thsi retards vacuuous words.. freaking collect the cheque and leave indian cricket alone.. we have seen what u are capable of save us from the pontification.

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Guest dada_rocks

Re: Chappell's 'report' targets seniors Steve waugh warned against hiring this guy for some reason i guess.. a narcissist can never be a good coach

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Re: Chappell's 'report' targets seniors It's not about dropping players. You can drop a couple of bad apples here and there, but it's an enormous waste of talent if you have to drop half your team. There were discipline problems with Ntini, Symonds, Ponting, and basically half the west indies team (the Queen, foremost). There are ways to salvage them. You need strong leaders to stop infighting and egomania. There need to be open lines of communication and trust (at least towards the leader), which were both obviously missing. It's something Dravid needs to learn (if he is given another chance).

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Re: Chappell's 'report' targets seniors ^^it's true... sadly. thats why Zaks told Sree to fack off at the boundary line during bermuda game. i was shocked when i lip-read, so made a few calls. screw it, these guys are no-hoper prima donnas. vroomfondel talks abt discipline probs with Roy, Punter, etc--but NEVER ever did these guys openly bad mouth their own "maytes". therein lies the difference. first off, aggy wanted to bounce SCG. secondly, he used a budding talented junior to do it. can u imagine haydo walking up to tait and saying, dude, bounce the cr@p out of Mr Cricket??? (unless it was a bet/wager)?? i can only imagine it, if haydo and hussey had a private bet that the latter could KILL tait's bouncers., for a few rounds of beer. that's bonding. what happened at the nets that day before bermuda game? that's sad shyte.

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