Greg Chappell: Senior India players made life difficult for juniors

One of my early tours was to Sri Lanka 2005 for a triangular oneday series and Sourav Ganguly was unavailable because of a suspension for slow over ratesJagmohan Dalmiya the most powerful man in the BCCI at the time said to me lsquoGreg would you like Sourav to go on the tour we can organise itrsquo I said lsquoI donrsquot think we should interfere in the process plus itrsquos an opportunity to look at Rahul Dravid and see what options we haversquo Dalmiya was happy enough with that response and so we went to Sri Lanka without GangulyThe team was a different place without Ganguly but he became available again midway through the tour I sat down with some of the senior players and asked whether they wanted him back and they said lsquono we donrsquotrsquo but the selectors brought him backIndia coach Greg Chappell walks away as team members warm up at St Georgersquos Park in Port Elizabeth ahead of the fourth ODI against South Africa on November 28 2006 PicsGetty Images AFPMy relationship with Sachin Tendulkar was central to how 2007 played out Earlier on whether in how he fielded or some of our other conversations he was very supportiveThe breaking point for our relationship was in planning for the 2007 World Cup Wersquod been to the Caribbean in 2006 without Sachin injured and we saw there how many of our players struggled in the oneday games when the ball got older and the pitches slowed up In particular the ball would stick in the wicket a bit like in Sri Lanka whereas in India it would still come onto the bat So timing could be a struggle This meant that we needed a quality player in the middle order to guide the innings in the critical phase between the early overs and the death After the 2006 West Indies tour I had flown to the United States to see family and during that time I thought through the issue before concluding that the best thing for India would be to bat Sachin at No 4 in the orderThe idea of Tendulkar batting at No 4 in 2007 while sound in conception was also tantamount to trying to move the Taj Mahal from Agra to Delhi Sachin opening in ODIs was not just a batting position but a national institutionI acknowledge now that the idea while sound in conception was also tantamount to trying to move the Taj Mahal from Agra to Delhi Sachin opening in ODIs was not just a batting position but a national institution A major issue I spoke to the senior players about with an eye to the future was the way that new players were treated when they came into the team The atmosphere they walked into was terrible as senior players disregarded their juniors either taking no notice of them or actively making their lives difficult So I sat down with Rahul Sehwag and Sachin and said lsquoGuys this is unacceptablersquoSome of the team fractures were evident in the West Indies during the World Cup in January and February 2007 where our early elimination sealed the end of my tenure During a training session a couple of the senior guys were egging Sreesanth on to bowl bouncers at Ganguly who was certainly never after a short ball workout in the nets Sree bowled one and Ganguly gave an irate response leaving the young bowler to ask lsquowhat do I do nowrsquo only to be told lsquobowl him another onersquo Ganguly just got angrier and angrier and it summed up what we were dealing withI sat down with some of the senior players in 2005 and asked whether they wanted him Ganguly back and they said lsquono we donrsquotrsquoDhoni was really the only one with the selfconfidence to move between the age groups a little He was accepted into conversations with the senior players around the team and would say his piece Dhoni was a real force for change and improvement in Indian cricketOverall India played 78 completed matches in all formats while I was coach and won 40 of them with 31 defeats We won three of six Test series we played beating the West Indies away but losing in Pakistan and South Africa In ODIs we took part in 16 series or tournaments including the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy and the 2007 World Cup and won 32 games as against 27 defeats in that time Of course the firstround exit from the World Cup was to be the most indelible outcome of the periodDhoni was really the only one with the selfconfidence to move between the age groups a little He was accepted into conversations with the senior players around the team and would say his piece Dhoni was a real force for change and improvement in Indian cricketOver the next four years with a less confrontational coach in Gary Kirsten India took out both the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in 2007 and also the ODI Cup on home soil in 2011 Much of the groundwork for these triumphs took place between 2005 and 2007India could not have achieved what they did in those subsequent years without what had gone before Another great challenge that I was never able to overcome was to try to get Virender Sehwag to train more effectively and try to expand his game beyond what was an admittedly spectacular comfort zone Sehwag really should have averaged 60 or close to it in Test cricket ndash he ended up averaging 49 ndash particularly given he was playing such a substantial proportion of matches in India But he was uncomfortable against the fast bowlersOver a number of conversations over the course of a year it got to the point where I said lsquoYoursquore not really comfortable with fast bowling are you Virursquo He always talked in the third person and said lsquoSehwag is frightened of fast bowlers but fast bowlers are frightened of Sehwagrsquo He was right too because bowlers knew if they missed their mark hersquod murder them But he could have been so much moreEdited extracts from Not Out by Greg Chappell with Daniel Brettig published by Hardie Grant Books