The Chappell-Ganguly story revisited….. the source of all Chappellskepticism

The Chappell Ganguly story has been well chronicled by Cricinfo. I thought it would be informative to revisit actual events instead of indulging in vague judgements like “Chappell looked like he was playing politics”. Heres what i think are the most telling facts of the case:

1. Chappell had a discussion with Ganguly in the tour match at Mutare in Zimbabwe about his position in the side, his work as captain and as his batting form. Chappell suggested that Ganguly step down and let Yuvraj, Kaif, Laxman and Dravid form the middle order for the next test match.

2. This was an internal team discussion which was leaked to the press – to the Anand Bazaar Patrika, possibly by Ganguly according to this Cricinfo article

3. The BCCI told the player to shut up about the issue and called up the review committee, which told Chappell and Ganguly to basically not air their dirty laundry in public. The selection committee subsequently sacked Ganguly as captain and dropped him from the team.

This is the leaked email

Sachin Tendulkar typically put some perspective to the issue, saying that it was an internal team matter and should never have been leaked. BCCI has not bothered to reveal where the leak was, and press has not asked them to do so. The press can’t ask them to do so, simply because they are as “unprofessional” (to use a must abused word) as the BCCI, and aren’t willing to risk not having a subject to report about by blowing their sources.

The whole thing has been a sorry affair – and nothing apart from newspaper sales went up as a result of it.

A World Cup victory may bring Chappell much needed respite, but those initial impressions will linger – only to surface at the slightest hint of rough weather. Even the World Cup win may be a poisoned chalice – the nay sayers will point to the “heroic comeback” and consider it final and absolute proof that Chappell embodies pure evil. In cricketing terms much of the so-called heroism – a word which is now synonymous with scoring runs – occured after the comeback. Ganguly did nothing particularly noteworthy with the bat the whole year. His selection was largely down to the fact that none of the youngsters made the middle order slot their own – and Yuvraj was injured.

Mohammad Kaif may feel aggrieved, but then, hes no Sourav Ganguly.

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Chappellskeptics – why they are wrong…..

Last appended on 2/26/07

Greg Chappell’s tenure as coach of the national side was cursed the day he made a seemingly straightforward case for the dropping of Sourav Ganguly from the Test team in Zimbabwe. Ganguly (the Dada in more ways than one) took it badly and to borrow an phrase from down under, flung the toys out of the pram. The press, brought up as it has been on intrigue, distrust, smelt a story too good to pass up and soon it was the firang Coach out to prove who was the boss. Ganguly couldn’t believe he was being told he was no longer good enough (the numbers support Chappell’s view) and took it badly. His reaction is understandable, but the immaturity and hyena like attitude of the press in the issue is not.

Soon it was time for effigies, protests and discussions in parliament at Rs 100,000 /minute, and Chappell’s tenure was doomed for ever. My friend Homer posted this post by G Rajaraman the sports journalist who writes for Outlook magazine, the Times of India and also on Cricinfo blogs has tried to present what Chappell and Dravid have tried to achieve in conjunction with the selectors. This article on Cricinfo gives an account of what actually happened in Zimbabwe in 2005.

What the selectors and Chappell-Dravid have exposed in the past 18 months, is the unless we have a side like Australia, where the batsmen average 40 with the bat and the bowlers average 25 with the ball (the bench mark for being top quality), we can’t live with a settled line up, because India won’t win with personnel who average in the mid 20’s with the bat for a long period of time, and with bowlers who average in the mid 30’s (which is what we have had – look at the records of Ganguly, Kaif, Zaheer Khan, Suresh Raina, Ashish Nehra and every other player who has been axed at some time or the other in the last 12-18 months). On the flip side is the fact that world class players are rare, and may not always be available. Therefore, the results on the ground for the Chappell-Dravid method were not always going to be as clean and crystal clear as they seemed in theory. The seemingly inexplicable (inexplicable only until one takes the trouble to ascertain real facts such as form and fitness of the player concerned) selection policy not only worked (India has won more than it has lost since Dravid was appointed captain – something that was not achieved in the Ganguly era if you don’t consider minnow matches), but has also moulded the side in Dravid’s image, which was important.

Heres why the skeptics are wrong – In the just concluded Deodhar Match, all eyes were on Irfan Pathan, but, with 3 selectors watching, Ramesh Powar produced a brilliant spell of 4/25, coming in after the Central Zone openers had raced to 0/80 by the 14th over. The press did not say a word about it – which says very little about the press’s interest in the cricket match. A good reporter would have asked Dilip Vengsarkar about Ramesh Powar’s performance, but most were interested in the non-story about Irfan Pathan. Cricinfo did provide a fine headline. It shows how difficult the job of the selectors is. And why a sincere decision can sometimes look like it is especially tough. It doesn’t however mean that the selectors were wrong. Similarly, the fact that something Chappell does not working, doesn’t mean he’s dishonest, and that his explanations are disingenuous.

My point is not to nitpick and keep going after people whos reactions i am unable to gauge in terms of the rationale for those positions (which never seem to be forthcoming). I do think that there is a case to be made for decency and grace and far more informative reporting.

Cricket is yet to become a sport in India. It is up to reporters and others who communicate events to communicate them well. The goal must be to shift the centre of gravity of cricket support in India away from Mandira Bedi at least in the general direction of a G Rajaraman or Ayaz Memon or Harsha Bhogle.

More domestic cricket will help in achieve this, because it will demystify cricket – it will put a whole lot of cricket out there which is not multi million dollar gladiatorial drama.

Cricket needs to be reclaimed from the Chappellskeptics towards the Cricketophiles, not because they are likely to side with Chappell in the life altering saga of Chappell v Ganguly, but because they are willing instinctively to give it a dispassionate, calm, rigorous hearing before offering their opinions (where passion for cricket will hopefully be apparent – armed with the facts and nurtured with concern for the sport)

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ODI Runs and their relationship with Match Results……

This thread has its roots in Kumar Sangakkara’s comment on Cricinfo about the relationship between Sanath Jayasurya making runs and Sri Lanka winning ODI games. For a long time, there has been a perception that Tendulkar hasn’t always had that match winning touch – and on the face of it, this appears to be true. 4 of Tendulkars 5 ODI centuries against Pakistan have resulted in defeats (contrast this with two other innings of 98 and 95 resulting in wins). These instances are anecdotal at best. The following table shows a comparison of the top ODI batsmen in the world – Tendulkar, Jayasurya, Lara, Ponting, Gilchrist, Kallis, Yousuf and Dravid – all having played over 200 ODI games. It seeks to describe the following:

1. How consistent are these players?
2. How does the number of runs they make affect the outcome?
3. Is there a difference in the way an openers runs affect the outcome, when compared to a middle order player?

(Please click on the table to see a bigger view)

The table compares the improvement in win % when each batsman makes more than 30, more than 50, more than 70 and more than 100, with the base win % for that batsman in all the games that he has played in. The Consistency field gives the percentage of total innings played in which a scored in excess of 30, 50, 70 or 100 was achieved.

The results show that opening the batting is not that different from batting in the middle order when it comes to influencing results. Tendulkar as opener has been the most consistent batsman in ODI cricket, for the longest period of time. In terms of a non-failure with the bat (scoring more than 30) affecting the outcome, Gilchrist, Ponting, Inzamam and Kallis have the minimum impact on the result, while Lara has the maximum impact on the result. Kallis’s runs don’t seem to matter very much, because South Africa win less often when he makes atleast 50 than they do when hes in the side. This is characteristic, as South Africa’s great strength has been the depth and quality in the lower middle order. The Australians are a strong outfit, and hence Ponting and Gilchrist’s runs matter less to Australia than Lara’s runs matter to West Indies or Tendulkar’s runs matter to India. Big runs from the openers seem to have a more telling impact on the game than big runs from the middle order – Tendulkar, Gilchrist, Jayasurya all affect the outcome more positively when they make hundreds than when they make 50’s. Lara and Dravid do so as well, but both Lara and Dravid have played in net unsuccessful teams (teams which have lost more than they have won). The batting position probably matters less than the general strength of the side in which the batsman plays.

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Revamping India’s Domestic Cricket – the Ranji and Duleep Trophies……

The technical committee of the BCCI, chaired by the great Sunil Gavaskar is likely to propose a revamp of the Ranji and Duleep Trophy matches for next season. The new proposals would involve scrapping the two division system, and dividing the 27 Ranji Sides in 3 groups of 9 teams each. The top two teams from each group would advance to the next stage, which would consist of the 6 teams being split into 2 groups of 3, which will then play a round robin match up. Two teams from each group would make the knock out semifinal stage.

In this proposed format, each Ranji team would have the chance to play 8 first class matches. Six of the teams will have the chance to play 10 first class matches, Four teams will play 11 and the finalists will play 12.

This would mean that the national side playing 9-10 Test matches in a full year (in 2007 India are likely to play 8-10 Tests, despite it being a World Cup year), would play as much first class cricket as the average Ranji Trophy player. These would of course be 5 day matches, while the Ranji player would play Eight 4 day matches. That in my view is too little cricket.

The idea of creating 3 groups of 9 teams is a good one – it might even be possible to break the country up into three zones instead of the existing 5. However, instead of the next stage comprising of 2 groups of 3 teams, i would propose the following:

You have 3 groups of 9 – and these would play in a league – each side playing 8 matches. I would suggest that the top 3 out of each group should advance to the next round and a new league of 9 teams be formed. But, (borrowing an idea from the World Cup), each of the sides would play 6 matches in the new league, with the results against teams from the original group would be carried over. Therefore, the Ranji Trophy Champions would play 16 matches in all, while the teams which make the elite group will play 14 matches in all.

Coming to the 6 teams in each of the original groups which do not make the knock out – they would play in a Level 2 league of 9 teams (similarly formed by choosing positions 4,5,6 from each group). The Level 3 leagues (positions 7,8,9 from each group) would play a round robin league. Each of these leagues would have winners.

What purpose would this serve? Apart from providing opportunities for teams to play first class cricket more than they have been playing before – it would help determine the seeding for next season. The Elite league would be seeded 1-9, the Level 2 league winners would be seeded 10th, with the other sides being seeded 10-18, while the level 3 league would be seeded 19-27.

The seeding would determine the formation of groups for the next season. So for example, Group A for the next season would consist of seeds 1,4,7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22 and 25. Group B for the next season would consist of 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23 and 26 while Group C for the next season would consist of 3, 6, ….. 27.

What this would ensure is that a minimum of 14 first class matches are played by each side. It would serve the national team well because it would provide opportunities for Test players to play in first class match more than the current schedule does.

The Ranji Trophy Champions should be given the honor of playing the visiting Test team in a tour match. The Irani Trophy as we know it today (Ranji Champions v Rest of India) should be scrapped. As a season opener, it should consist of the Test team playing a Rest of India side (effectively an India A side).

The Duleep Trophy, even if it becomes non-zonal needs to be scrapped, because scratch squads would result only in the matches turning into selection matches. Instead of the Duleep Trophy the Level 2 and Level 3 leagues proposed above would serve as better contests, because they will involve real Teams and not scratch combinations.

The annual ODI tournament would be along similar lines, played over 2-3 weeks at the end of the first class season.

The Indian Cricket Season would then look like this:

Season Opener: Irani Trophy – India (Test team) v Rest of India – early October
Salve Challenger: ODI tournament – following the Irani Trophy
Ranji Trophy: The first league to be completed by December (8 matches per team). The second league (Elite, Level 2 and Level 3 – 6 matches per side + knock out matches for the sides top 4 out of 9 teams in each league) to be played in January, February.
Ranji OD Tournament: Along similar lines – each side getting 14 One Day Matches – Played in March.

The Test Team schedule needs to include only the Irani Trophy – this will serve them well as a tough season opening test.

The problem with India’s domestic cricket has been too little cricket. More Cricket will improve standards of grounds (which will be used more and hence will be maintained more often), umpires (they will have to be professional) and players.

What will be the performance benchmarks for a first class season comprising 14-16 first class matches ? 100 wickets, and 1500 runs?

The English season had too much cricket at one time, and now it possibly has too little. If the first class matches are televised, it will also probably allow BCCI to have a dedicated 24-7 Cricket feed, create a genuine national sporting league and hopefully encourage other sports to follow suit.

The ideas under consideration (going by the the TOI article) don’t go far enough in my opinion. The non-zonal Duleep Trophy is especially pointless, for matches which would be little more than selection trials serve no purpose. What better selection trial can you have other than a team fighting for the highest possible seeding to get a favorable position in next years league?

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The Indibloggies Results…..

The indibloggies results are out. The delightfully name Sportolysis was voted best sportsblog of the year. Congratulations to them. Thanks to the jury members who nominated Cricketing View and thanks to every one who voted. The results show that 534 votes were cast in the sports blog category, which is quite a high number. Congratulations to all the other winners, nominees and voters each of the categories. It is great to see so many people reading and writing blogs.

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Meerabai Bedi and other horrors…..

Today morning, i saw this feature on Rediff and all the horrors of Sony’s shrill “wraparound” programming in during the 2003 World Cup came flooding back. World Cup time and no Mandira Bedi? She appears every time India play any ODI tournament of any consequence. Now it seems theres going to be two Mandiras competing for the award of “female cricket fan of the year” – Mandira and Meerabai. (The female part is non-trivial simply because i just don’t see Sony or any other TV station hiring a male cricket fan to play the part of ignorant passionate India fan for their TV shows – and no – Charu Sharma does not fall into this category, he is basically unfathomable)

As a business decision one has to admire the Bedis’ latest film making venture. They definitely know a good thing when they see it, and they are obviously able to convince some solid people to jump on. Anil Kumble reportedly appears in a cameo in the movie. What was the great man thinking?

But then again, strangely enough, im looking forward to Meerabai Not Out more than i am to the wraparound show (its a total of 4 hours of unrelenting slaughter of all things cricketing and all things human wrapped around a cricket match which is 7 hours long – and they call it extraa innings – i wish the Referee could penalize them for slow overrates). At least Meerabai Not Out is a movie, and won’t show up during Cricket matches. Mandira Bedi further reveals that the noodle straps were her idea and takes credit for coinage of the term noodle straps – apparently they were referred to as spaghetti straps before! Then she goes on claim that “It just turned out to be something that got noticed because of the place where I was sitting.”

Err….. wasn’t that the only thing that got noticed, inspite of other unspeakably cruel practices such as tarot card reading and good old takloo? One can almost see the evil bosses at Sony rubbing their hands with glee “We’ve got the whole of India captive – they can’t see the World Cup anywhere else but with us…… so lets let em have it!!”…..

The character in the film is called Meera Achrekar, a 30 year old teacher who’s “missed the boat” (read – is still single). I wish there had been some originality as far as the name went, without invoking the famous wicketkeeper from Sassanian and New Hind. About the “missing the boat” part, lets not even go there….. further, from her description of the “character”, there are uncanny resemblances to Jassi.

That seems to be the overarching theme with every thing the lady does – flitting from stereotype to stereotype until you have a suitably mangled composite which stumbles along on screen and assaults the viewers senses like little else can.

Further, Ms. Bedi also describes some of her attire during the upcoming extraa innings…. and those descriptions plainly scare me.

For once im glad that i won’t be watching the World Cup in India. I will post exact timings of the start of each innings (NOT the extraaa variety) as a public service during the World Cup.

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Performance Review on World Cup Eve….

With each of the top 8 teams having completed their pre -World Cup ODI schedule, this is where they stand at the moment. This is a reflection of form as well as of basic team strength. The table below, shows the average total scored and conceded over a 50 over innings by each of the 9 teams in the last 5 matches played by each team against each of the other teams (40 matches in all). The Win-Loss columns describes results over these 40 matches, while the last column shows the rating, which corresponds to the February 07 rating in the graph above.

If one considers this statistical preview, then it is clear that Pakistan has been under performing in the last 14-15 months or so of ODI cricket. Australia have been pummeled into the pack by England and New Zealand, while the South Africans look like they are well and truly ahead of the other sides. However, inspite of their form, one cannot help feeling that a pummeling is just around the corner for them as well. Bangladesh, Kenya and Zimbabwe are perfectly capable of springing the odd nasty surprise as well. Add to this the wagaries of the weather in the Caribbean and you have a simmering brew which some teams might find to the liking – the others not.

The most open World Cup field in ODI World Cup history promises to throw up a classic World Cup.

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Guru Greg’s Grand Designs……

If the media is to be believed, Greg Chappell has been milking India’s recent success (3-1 v WI followed by 2-1 v SL) to score much needed brownie points about his performance and about strategies followed by the team management and selection committee. Recent comments about Sourav Ganguly’s return and now this effort about Sehwag, all serve to embellish the Guru Greg image. The Sehwag story is a bit iffy though, because Chappell’s quote to me sounded more like thinly veiled exasperation at Virendra Sehwag’s stubborn resistance to common sense, compounded no doubt by the embattled batsman’s mind numbingly ridiculous dismissal at Vizag. Chappell said “something seems to have worked” and also said that “Sehwag was used in the middle order as cover for Yuvraj Singh”, and Rediff some how turned this into a “motivational ploy”!! Sometimes i wonder what the questions are like in these press conference – i mean, did they actually ask him “Why did Sehwag score runs?”!

Chappell’s detailed explanation about his methods is being interpreted by the press according to the press’s image of Chappell, and Chappell’s legacy will be defined by one thing and one thing only – Chappell v Ganguly. This sadly one eyed view shows absolute contempt for the position and role of the coach in life of a cricket team. If we can not grant people in positions of responsibility the basic courtesy of not questioning their motives every step of the way, then we dare not expect anything other than mediocrity. In this case, we find a very good cricket team and yet, i cannot help feel that we in India can learn so much more from cricket and Indian Cricket than we are today.

For Chappell, the only way he can “retrieve” the damage caused by the Ganguly issue (and this has nothing to do with Ganguly, but has everything to do with the fact that the purveyors of public opinion still continue to fuels old fires simply because it sounds smart to pummel someone with contempt. Ganguly himself has come to terms with the fact that the decision to sack him was the right one. Without this realization he would never had regained the clarity of thought which has been apparent in his recent cricket), is by winning the World Cup.

The sad thing is that should India win, the adulation, well meant as it will be, will still be rooted in hollow ignorance, and when the next coach comes along and the next selection committee comes along and deals with the next Ganguly, we will have a rerun of 2005. The cricket press has no responsibility and is answerable to no one and that is how it should be. It does have a responsibility to desist from caricaturizing every subject. Cricket is trivial in the larger scheme of things. Why then can’t we be decent where nothing is at stake?

Only then will we be spared binary positions “Oh X is out to get Y” and “Oh X is justifying things with 20-20 hindsight, who does he think he’s fooling” – neither position has anything to do with actual events and actual opinions expressed by any of the protagonists.

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Now it is an 10 year Low…..

Australia have now lost 4 straight matches and 5 out of 6 matches. The last time this happened was from Bloemfontein to Sydney against England and South Africa in 1997. Earlier this week i wrote about Australia’s 9 year low. In fact, if you look at the Australian record from World Cup 1996 onwards, it doesn’t make for very exciting reading. Between World Cup 1996 and World Cup 1999, Australia had a 38-36 record – a record which could be clearly seen in 2 halves. In 1996 and 1997, they were 11-20, while in 1998 and 1999, they turned things around to be 27-16. Since the 1999 world cup, Australia have a 163-48 record in ODI cricket, and have basically been the closest thing to an invincible cricket team. Their best years were 2001 (18-3) and 2003 (30-5). 2007 has been their worst year since 1997 (they are 7-5 in 12 games this year).

With any side other than Australia, this might not have been exceptional. But injuries have not hurt Australia in the past as they are hurting them now. If you look at performance, there isn’t one particular thing that one could put a finger on – sometimes its been the batting which has cost them games, at other times its been the bowling.

With New Zealand winning the Chappell-Hadlee trophy, i think it is safe to post the pre-World Cup summary now.

This is how the teams stand. The most inconsistent team with the weakest performance out of the top 8 is Pakistan. There are no run away favorites to win this World Cup. And each of the 8 sides could make the knock out stage. If you compare this to the Football World Cup, its quite interesting. Even though football is player more widely than cricket could ever be played, and even though more countries play football of a really high standard than they do cricket, could any one realistically point to 8 national football teams who had a real shot at the World Cup in 2006? I can think of 5 – Germany, Argentina, France, Italy, Germany. Football is basically a club sport, while Cricket is basically a national sport. I don’t know which format is superior, but it is clear which World Cup offers the keener contest.

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India at World Cup Eve….

Greg Chappell was appointed coach of the Indian side in May 2005. It was an orderly transfer of responsibility from the Wright to Chappell. The transition from Ganguly to Rahul Dravid was anything but. As 2006 approached, it was apparent to an increasing number of people, that Ganguly was in decline as captain, batsman and cricketer. Injury caused Ganguly to miss Chappell’s first series in charge – the triseries in SL. He returned for the Zimbabwe Triseries at the end of which, was dropped from the ODI side. The former captain took it badly and the nation shared his dismay. Chappell got an early taste of what it was going to be like being the Gandalf of India – minus the magical powers. What happened next is debatable (mainly due to the existence of two distinct world views – God Ganguly and Human Ganguly – or conversely Human Chappell or Evil Chappell). Dravid-Chappell delivered for India their most successful ODI season ever – with a new team and new achievers. Munaf Patel, Suresh Raina, Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan, Robin Utthappa, Ramesh Powar, RP Singh, – all turned in match winning efforts. Yuvraj Singh staked realistic claim to the top table of the world’s ODI batsmen. Captaincy made Rahul Dravid a better ODI player. Tendulkar made sporadic appearances. Sehwag, Kaif and Zaheer took a back seat. A world record for most consecutive run chases was achieved. The end of that run of successful chases marked the beginning of a slump, as India lost by 1 run chasing 197 against the West Indies at Trinidad. Dwayne Bravo foxed Yuvraj Singh with his slower ball for a brilliant 97. Since then, its been downhill for India, Dravid and Chappell.

The Vengsarkar selection committee replaced Kiran More after the recent elections and India embarked on the home stretch of their World Cup preperations. It was time to focus on the final task of assembling a squad a 15 players by February 14th. This included the return of Zaheer Khan (who put in the hard yards and came back a better bowler) and Sourav Ganguly (who seems to have thought long and hard, and cleansed himself of the captaincy and all associated grime), much to the glee of the Chappell bashing janata. Chappell himself has given a freewheeling (to use a peculiar phrase used very often in interview introductions) interview on World Cup eve where it is apparent that he has learnt much about India in general and Cricket in India in particular. His claim about being a well wisher of the former captain is received with skepticism and he seems to be resigned to the fact that this may never really change.

Sehwag, Ganguly, Yuvraj, Tendulkar, Dravid, Dhoni, Pathan, Agarkar, Munaf, Zaheer, Harbhajan looks world beating on paper. It is a better side than the 2003 World Cup side – Dravid is a better player today, as is Yuvraj Singh, while Zaheer is a better bowler today than he was in 2003. Agarkar will always be Agarkar, while Munaf is possibly the best Indian fast bowler since Kapil Dev. Harbhajan is an experienced ODI spinner now.

The Munaf v Sreesanth debate seems to have been framed along the same lines as the Dravid v Ganguly debate. There is little doubt that Dravid is the better batsman amongst the two, and there is little doubt in my mind that Munaf has superior control when compared with Sreesanth. However, Ganguly and Sreesanth will always win the popularity stakes because they wear their heart on their sleeve and leave little to the imagination as far as their opinion about things are concerned. Dravid and Munaf are far more classical, more correct and seem intent on doing things correctly. They are not givens to fits of unseemly behaviour, neither are they given to theatrical outbursts. Ganguly has mellowed with age but his fans seem ageless. Who wants to win more? On this question, the fans are nearly unanimous (i realize this is a dangerously sweeping claim, but i have no reason to believe otherwise) – Ganguly and Sreesanth want it more than Dravid and Munaf (each group being representative of their respective ilks).

This misguided subtext seems to dominate the concerns of India’s fans. Do the players really want it badly enough? Does Dravid wan’t to win as badly as Ganguly did? What is Chappell’s agenda? Was Ganguly sidelined in the manner that he was to pave the way for 8-10 months of pure Chappell-Dravidization? These questions and these world views will never go away. What a World Cup victory will do at best is to sweep these questions under the carpet. Appreciation of Cricket in India is much like the appreciation of Indian-Chinese – which is probably the most misconcieved, misunderstood and yet seemingly inevitably popular cuisine in todays India. It is probably the closest one can come to a pan-Indian restaurant cuisine. So it is with Cricket.

As Chappell has learnt, this is a reality which is best left at arms length. The team as with the selection committee and the cricket community must become a cocoon in which Cricket can be developed. That is what has been attempted, and achieved in the last 6 or 7 years. This World Cup is the acid test of this development.

Best Wishes to India…

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