I can't be honest in India: Chappell

Anuradha SenGupta: Have you started thinking this a thankless job?

Greg Chappell: Not really, I mean it can be. There are days when you feel that…I mean I am human like anyone else. I don’t necessarily like to be attacked and criticised all the time, but it does come with the job of coaching and certainly comes with the job of coaching in India. Working with the players is not a thankless task, I mean that part of it is challenging.

Anuradha SenGupta: It is still a joy?

Greg Chappell: Joy is perhaps not the word I would use but it is where the challenge is. A cricket team is always a work in progress; there is never a time when you got to the point where you can say, ‘Ah, we have achieved what we had set out to achieve.’

Anuradha SenGupta: Do you then only think, and talk, and worry about cricket?

Greg Chappell: In this job it is probably only about 99.99 per cent of my day, yeah. The thing that worries me is that I dream about coaching. I never dreamt about playing cricket, when I went to sleep I was asleep and I might have dreamt about other things.

Anuradha SenGupta: Now the question is did you dream about coaching when you were coaching in Australia or did the dreams started happening only when you started coaching India? And then, are there nightmares?

Greg Chappell: Sometimes. I was coaching in South Australia I did have some…I did wake up in the middle of the night with sweat running off my forehead, sort of sat bolt upright in the bed and thought it was real and realised that it was only a coaching session in my mind.

It’s an all-consuming job, you are constantly observing, constantly thinking how can we do this better, how can we help a player in some area.

Anuradha SenGupta: So do you read at all?

Greg Chappell: I read for education more than for relaxation. I mean I find that relaxing anyway. There wouldn’t be a day that I don’t read something. I hope it contributes in making me a better coach. It might be a business book; it might be a book about Boris Becker or Tiger Woods.

Anuradha SenGupta: When do you let, whatever hair you have, down?

Greg Chappell: Thank you very much! I do yoga. I meditate, because if I didn’t meditate, if I didn’t do my yoga then there would be an enormous amount of pressure built up. I don’t feel that I am stressed out and all pent up, I probably am, but I am quite relaxed in this environment (cricket stadium) even with the cameras around. Coaching, I find that stimulating and relaxing in itself. Much of coaching is about observation, watching, seeing what’s different from yesterday. There is not much that goes on in this arena that I am not aware of and haven’t seen before and many times before.

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