'Greg pushed Indian cricket back' - Senior Players

[DesiChap]

'Greg pushed Indian cricket back' TIMES NEWS NETWORK / Ajay Naidu NAGPUR, April 3: Sachin Tendulkar's deep anguish at his and other senior players' attitude being questioned by coach Greg Chappell was shared by a number of senior players contacted by TOI . They felt the coach has mounted a smear campaign to tar their reputation while seeking to absolve himself of all blame for the World Cup debacle - something, they feel, he shouldn't be allowed to get away with. One of them told TOI that Chappell has been indulging in "low one-upmanship" ever since he became the coach. "He has been smartly using the media right through his tenure and has been allowed to get away with a lot of mudslinging. All these days we kept quiet because we respect the sanctity of Indian cricket. Besides, we didn't want to stoop to his level," he said. Yet another senior player, who has kept quiet despite not exactly being Chappell's favourite bowler, finally spoke up to hit out against the coach. "It's quite obvious that Chappell has a guilty mind. That's precisely why he is having a go at anyone and everyone. He's also trying his best to shoot over Rahul's (Dravid) shoulders, saying that the seniors have undermined his authority. But please get this straight, Rahul has the respect of every member in the team," he said. As for his statements about divisions in the team, this player asked, "Why is it that all these things are surfacing only now after the World Cup debacle? C'mon yaar, all the seniors have been playing together for over 10 years. We have personally seen many ups and downs, and also the swings in the team's fortunes. There is a special bonding among us, which only we can understand. It's also about our friendship and our culture which an Aussie will never understand." The seniors also accused the coach of repeatedly leaking the team's gameplans to the media. "The discussions within team meetings are supposed to be confidential. But most of them used to be passed out by him. We were all very upset but could do nothing to stop him," said another player. "If only Sourav (Ganguly) had heeded the warnings (about not hiring Chappell as coach) of several Australian players, including the highly-respected Steve Waugh, Indian cricket would have been saved of this 'tamasha'," he added with obvious bitterness at the nasty turn that Indian cricket has taken in the aftermath of the World Cup flop. A respected Indian cricketer choked with emotion as he went on to recall Chappell's 'high-handedness.' "In life, we have our share of good and bad experiences but, to be honest, I have not come across anyone like him before. He has made life hell for all of us. It's definitely the worst experience of my cricketing career." He asked: "Tell me, why have we had endless controversies ever since Chappell took over? Why is it that only one man is at the centre of all of them?" He added: "Also please tell people that there was no problem with seniors. The fact is that Chappell never spoke to the players for three-four days, and this was during the World Cup. He just doesn't listen to anybody. Is that how a coach behaves during such an important assignment?" When his attention was drawn to Chappell's reported statement about senior players acting like the mafia, the cricketer burst out: "By referring to the seniors as 'mafia', he has shown his true colours. That's how he thinks! No cricketer would like to be described that way. How can he even think like that? It's a disgrace!" This senior also tore into Chappell's allegations that the youngsters were being treated badly, including the use of some 'abusive' methods against them. "That's not the Indian way," he said. "Tell me, has any youngster ever complained about a senior? Has anyone asked Dinesh Karthik or Sreesanth or Suresh Raina? Who is he to pass a judgment on his own? By saying that the seniors have blocked the youngsters' entry into the side, he has not only targeted the seniors but has also polluted their minds. Now every youngster will look around with suspicion. That will be his contribution to Indian cricket!" The seniors were unanimous in their opinion that Indian cricket has suffered a lot of damage under Chappell. "It's definitely not a good advertisement for Indian cricket. The harsh truth is that Indian cricket hasn't gone forward under Chappell, although we had a great team that made it to the finals of the 2003 World Cup and won a series in Pakistan in 2004. In fact, it has gone back by at least four years thanks to this gentleman. We were definitely a much better side, almost like one big family till this man came around!" Asked what the seniors would do if Chappell takes what he has reportedly said to the BCCI committee later this week, a senior said, "There is a limit to everything. He has been using the media and getting away with it. If he still doesn't stop his mudslinging, we will give it back to him ? with interest!"

[The Outsider]

Re: 'Greg pushed Indian cricket back' - Senior Players Again, Chappell might be full of cr@p but :

All these days we kept quiet because we respect the sanctity of Indian cricket. Besides, we didn't want to stoop to his level," he said.

Uhhh....you could have beaten BD couldn't you?

The harsh truth is that Indian cricket hasn't gone forward under Chappell, although we had a great team that made it to the finals of the 2003 World Cup and won a series in Pakistan in 2004. In fact, it has gone back by at least four years thanks to this gentleman. We were definitely a much better side, almost like one big family till this man came around!"

And this big family was broken by an Aussie coach to the extent that we couldn't beat BD? What a strong family!!

[DesiChap]

Re: 'Greg pushed Indian cricket back' - Senior Players

Yet another senior player, who has kept quiet despite not exactly being Chappell's favourite bowler, finally spoke up to hit out against the coach. "It's quite obvious that Chappell has a guilty mind. That's precisely why he is having a go at anyone and everyone. He's also trying his best to shoot over Rahul's (Dravid) shoulders, saying that the seniors have undermined his authority. But please get this straight, Rahul has the respect of every member in the team," he said.

Good Old Zaheer !

[gs]

Re: 'Greg pushed Indian cricket back' - Senior Players

There is a special bonding among us, which only we can understand. It's also about our friendship and our culture which an Aussie will never understand."

and you will never understand that cricket has evolved as a game in the past 10 years - and we are behind in most respects by atleast 10 years!! :hic:

[King]

Re: 'Greg pushed Indian cricket back' - Senior Players Unless these players have the guts to officially quote these statements I have no time for this. The players must be shit scared to come out in open and say it. All these guys are outright opportunists that's about it. Everyone wants to pledge support to each other but have no guts to state their names in public. Same goes to Greg Chappell. I doubt if these are grown men or gossiping teens. :shrug:

[DesiChap]

Re: 'Greg pushed Indian cricket back' - Senior Players Ravi the contacted players are under the BCCI "gag" and cannot officially speak out. Saching came out because he is Sachin and well knows nobody can touch him.

[yoda]

Re: 'Greg pushed Indian cricket back' - Senior Players More BS from a bunch of chokers. All of you are pretty useless anyways, yes, including Mr. Hawaii Chappal. Like shwetabh asks, did Chappal ask you chokers to get bowled and give catching practice to minnowdeshis?

[DesiChap]

Re: 'Greg pushed Indian cricket back' - Senior Players Senior pros look to Pawar for succour, seeks time to explain their side of story Sukhwant Basra Wednesday, April 04, 2007 00:23 IST MUMBAI: The media lambasting being dished out to the senior players has got the old guard shaken. Senior players have sought time with BCCI president Shard Pawar to explain their side of the story in the wake of various allegations surfacing in the press in the last few days. That the majority of these accusations allegedly stem from Greg Chappell has got the senior pros all the more riled. The big boys, it has been learnt, have asked Sachin Tendulkar to convey their grievances to Pawar and Tendulkar is said to have agreed to take the matter forward. The players are still sticking to the gentlemen?s agreement asked for by captain Rahul Dravid at the last team meeting in the Caribbean. Dravid had asked the team to desist from blaming others and to refrain from finger-pointing. But they do seem to feel that it is important to give the complete picture to Pawar as they fear the report which Chappell is to submit to the BCCI on April 6. Leaks which appear to be emanating from the Chappell camp have also irked the players as they feel the coach is going against the general consensus agreed upon at the meeting. The senior players have gathered that Chappell is going to be scathing about the attitude of some of the more entrenched names in the side inclusive of Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh as well as the bowling trio of Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agrakar. An instance where a senior fast bowler abused a promising junior, who took out drinks for him during a match, is learnt to be part of Chappell?s case about haughty behaviour of a certain clique of seniors. The players, on their part, intend to take up valid issues like the ambiguous role of Ian Fraser who had limited credentials to speak of and then failed to do much on the ground. Chappell?s problem with Tendulkar is said to have begun from the Champions Trophy when the Little Master was urged to go down the order and play the innings bolstering role that Ricky Ponting and Inzamam-ul-Haq play for their sides. Tendulkar, on his part, is more comfortable opening. Meanwhile, team sources are vehement that the decision to bat first against Bangladesh had seen no opposition from the coach as it was felt that the batters could do with a good knock before the Super Eights and that was clearly not going to be possible if Bangladesh was put in first and then bowled out cheaply.

[DesiChap]

Re: 'Greg pushed Indian cricket back' - Senior Players The on going "soap opera" will climax on Apr 07 !

[King]

Re: 'Greg pushed Indian cricket back' - Senior Players

Ravi the contacted players are under the BCCI "gag" and cannot officially speak out. Saching came out because he is Sachin and well knows nobody can touch him.

I guess those days are gone DesiChap. Sachin when was at the top of his game could command people to listen to him. Now people hardly listen to his pleas. He has made far too many statements of late and hasn't backed it up.

[Holysmoke]

Re: 'Greg pushed Indian cricket back' - Senior Players

Unless these players have the guts to officially quote these statements I have no time for this. The players must be **** scared to come out in open and say it. All these guys are outright opportunists that's about it. Everyone wants to pledge support to each other but have no guts to state their names in public. Same goes to Greg Chappell. I doubt if these are grown men or gossiping teens. :shrug:

And when Sachin officially gives out a statement, with his name, you say that he should not go around making statements. As SRT said, "Chappell has taken things a bit too far to keep quiet."

[DesiChap]

Re: 'Greg pushed Indian cricket back' - Senior Players This blame game must stop! Ayaz Memon Wednesday, April 04, 2007 00:23 IST The atmosphere in Indian cricket stands vitiated. Not since the match-fixing scam in 2000 have there been so much palpable tension, insecurity and ? predictably ?- gossip, speculation, planted stories and counter-plants. It?s almost as if a war by proxy is being fought out there, and I?m afraid, if this is not stemmed in time, the only casualty will be Indian cricket. The spate of denials ? from various quarters ? keeps pace with that of stories about ego-hassles, confrontations, bad blood in the Indian dressing room during the misadventure in the Caribbean Islands. Are the senior players gunning for Greg Chappell or is it the other way around? Is there a ?players mafia? that is ruining Indian cricket? Is Chappell fixing the blame of his own failures on the selectors first, then the players to protect his job? Success has many fathers, goes the old saying, failure is an orphan. It is likely that there would have been no leaked tales, no rancour, had the team reached even the semifinals. Perhaps even now, none of these stories is entirely true. Yet surely there is something wrong somewhere; can there be so much smoke without any fire? Ordinarily viewed, this clash is no more than a simple blame game, with each party trying to protect its backside against a public backlash. From a cricketing perspective, this is silly, because blame cannot be so easily assigned when the failure is evidently collective. On the other hand, this blame game highlights the fact that Indian cricket is like an over-ripe fruit ? so sweet, as to become bitter. There is too much at stake for everybody concerned ? prestige, power, and pelf certainly ? and the threat of losing these creates deep insecurity when the situation gets unhappy. Indian cricket would be happier place if there was more honesty and less emotion in assessing its true merits. For far too long it has operated on bluster, not on strength, excellence and triumph. The current crisis was perhaps inevitable. I don?t doubt the clouds will clear ? as it did after the match-fixing scam ? but how soon depends on how BCCI president Sharad Pawar tackles the situation from here. The review committee meeting scheduled for this weekend should go some way in at least getting the main issues to the table. In the interim, this guerilla war, as it were, must stop. It is doing nobody any good.

[King]

Re: 'Greg pushed Indian cricket back' - Senior Players

Unless these players have the guts to officially quote these statements I have no time for this. The players must be **** scared to come out in open and say it. All these guys are outright opportunists that's about it. Everyone wants to pledge support to each other but have no guts to state their names in public. Same goes to Greg Chappell. I doubt if these are grown men or gossiping teens. :shrug:

And when Sachin officially gives out a statement, with his name, you say that he should not go around making statements. As SRT said, "Chappell has taken things a bit too far to keep quiet."

I haven't read a single interview of Greg Chappell that blames the seniors or the SRT as yet. How can Sachin say "Chappell has taken things a bit too far to keep quiet"? From what I know Sachin is reacting to the media reports that hasn't really quoted Greg Chappell. Sachin is being proactive here.

[Holysmoke]

Re: 'Greg pushed Indian cricket back' - Senior Players

Unless these players have the guts to officially quote these statements I have no time for this. The players must be **** scared to come out in open and say it. All these guys are outright opportunists that's about it. Everyone wants to pledge support to each other but have no guts to state their names in public. Same goes to Greg Chappell. I doubt if these are grown men or gossiping teens. :shrug:

And when Sachin officially gives out a statement, with his name, you say that he should not go around making statements. As SRT said, "Chappell has taken things a bit too far to keep quiet."

I haven't read a single interview of Greg Chappell that blames the seniors or the SRT as yet. How can Sachin say "Chappell has taken things a bit too far to keep quiet"? From what I know Sachin is reacting to the media reports that hasn't really quoted Greg Chappell. Sachin is being proactive here.

are u serious.. havent you read the "mafia" article? read this too http://www.cricketworldcuplatest.com/news/bcci-sources-confirm-coach-greg-chappell-s-claims--111154.html

[The Outsider]

Re: 'Greg pushed Indian cricket back' - Senior Players

Sachin is being proactive here.

Or maybe a guilty conscience, though I would hate to believe it. :chin:

[King]

Re: 'Greg pushed Indian cricket back' - Senior Players

are u serious.. havent you read the "mafia" article? read this too http://www.cricketworldcuplatest.com/news/bcci-sources-confirm-coach-greg-chappell-s-claims--111154.html

I read the "mafia" article but I thought that was more of a speculation. Thanks for that article that confirms the report was indeed not speculation. Fair enough for Sachin to reply to these allegations but why in public. He could take it up with the BCCI can't he? Chappell is set to go and am sure he is not going to be retained. Chappell is not a saint and can get pretty lowly when it comes to saving his arse. That said I don't know why Sachin like Chappell should be washing dirty linen in public??? Simply put without performance to back people are going to react like I am right now. That is the harsh truth.

[DesiChap]

Re: 'Greg pushed Indian cricket back' - Senior Players

I haven't read a single interview of Greg Chappell that blames the seniors or the SRT as yet. How can Sachin say "Chappell has taken things a bit too far to keep quiet"? From what I know Sachin is reacting to the media reports that hasn't really quoted Greg Chappell. Sachin is being proactive here.

BCCI Sources Confirm Coach Greg Chappell?s Claims That Senior Players Were Undermining The Role Of Captain Rahul Dravid Submitted by Sudhakar Shanbhag on Tue, 2007-04-03 10:11. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) sources on Tuesday confirmed that claims made by coach Greg Chappell about senior players actually trying to undermine the role of captain Rahul Dravid, were correct. India?s premier news channel NDTV broke the news on Monday about Chappell?s claims on senior India players operating like ?mafia? and it was sources within the BCCI ,who came to the fore, on Tuesday to confirm the claims. NDTV reported on Tuesday that BCCI sources had conveyed that Chappell was exposing the seniors in order to divert the blame from him for India?s World Cup exit. BCCI sources have further disclosed that Chappell?s claim about captain Dravid being pressurised by seniors was also correct and that neither Dravid nor Chappell had actually arrived at the decision to bat first against Bangladesh in the group phase. ?The decision to bat first against Bangladesh was taken by senior players so that they could get batting practice,? the BCCI source had said while informing NDTV. However, BCCI sources have denied Chappell?s claims that he was unhappy with the team chosen for the World Cup and, in fact, never mentioned a word about the team sent for the Caribbean tour. ?Chappell accepted the team and never called it a bad one,? the BCCI sources were quoted as saying to NDTV. It is also learnt that team manager Sanjay Jagdale?s report will justify Chappell?s opinion on senior players as his report will be tabled at the BCCI meeting on April 6.

[yoda]

Re: 'Greg pushed Indian cricket back' - Senior Players

BCCI sources have further disclosed that Chappell?s claim about captain Dravid being pressurised

If this is correct, Dravid should resign. If he can't facking decide whether to bat or bowl first without being mutinied by the team, he should give up the captaincy.

[Holysmoke]

Re: 'Greg pushed Indian cricket back' - Senior Players

are u serious.. havent you read the "mafia" article? read this too http://www.cricketworldcuplatest.com/news/bcci-sources-confirm-coach-greg-chappell-s-claims--111154.html

I read the "mafia" article but I thought that was more of a speculation. Thanks for that article that confirms the report was indeed not speculation. Fair enough for Sachin to reply to these allegations but why in public. He could take it up with the BCCI can't he? Chappell is set to go and am sure he is not going to be retained. Chappell is not a saint and can get pretty lowly when it comes to saving his arse. That said I don't know why Sachin like Chappell should be washing dirty linen in public??? Simply put without performance to back people are going to react like I am right now. That is the harsh truth.

fair enough... but think of this.. we both know that we are out of the WC because we arent mentally tough enough, and/or were not in the correct frame of mind... if a coach stops talking to players for 4 days.. well, thats insane, unbelievable.. player not talking to other players, still imaginable.. coach shunning team during a world cup.. wtf... with the the weight of expectations of a billion people, coach playing mental games, shunning the team, u cannot really expect a team to come out tops in a pressure-cooker situation.. ive never heard of a coach shunning the team.. thats like him not doing his job.. wtf was he doing in the windies then...

[The Outsider]

Re: 'Greg pushed Indian cricket back' - Senior Players

?The decision to bat first against Bangladesh was taken by senior players so that they could get batting practice,? the BCCI source had said while informing NDTV.

Didn't do them a lot of good. They are still getting out for single digits in domestic 20/20!! I am sure we can blame Chappell for that as well.