I can't be honest in India: Chappell

A little push, a tighter grip, a better look — after all Men in Blue have all that billions of Indians want: talent, wealth and fame.

To be their guru, means living with them in a goldfish bowl and that is something coach Greg Chappell is coming to terms with. CNN-IBN's Anuradha SenGupta met him in Nagpur before the start of the current ODI series with West Indies, one that has started on a winning note.

Anuradha SenGupta: I met Ricky Ponting recently on a series that we did on this channel. I couldn’t help but sense he seemed to be very relaxed. When I see Indian cricketers, either talking on TV or just the way they seem to be, most of them seem constrained. Now is this got to do with being Indian or Australian or is got to do with how the stakes are here in India for everybody involved in the game?

Greg Chappell: I think that’s mainly the difference. Every word, every nuance is treated so much more un-really in this country. In Australia you would say something and it would make a ripple. Here you say something and it’s a tsunami. That’s the difference, and even I have learnt over the time I have been here that you have to be really careful of what you say.

You can’t be honest about everything because of the way it can be taken and the way it can be twisted and the way it has been. I am sure that affects our players when they speak to the media because they know…I mean in my position if I talk about Sachin Tendulkar or if I talk about Rahul Dravid I have to be careful about what I say, because what I would say without fear in Australia I can’t say here. And I think that’s a shame, really, because therefore the media doesn’t get an honest opinion from within Indian cricket circles.

Anuradha SenGupta: Your sense of humour, has it taken a beating?

Greg Chappell: It has taken a beating but I think I have sort of got through that period. But it is still being collateral damage because I am still very conscious and careful of what I say because it will be taken out of context. The one I can think of was in South Africa when I made a comment about politicians, and that was really just a throwaway line, and it reverberated around the world because all of a sudden politicians were trying to take me to court and all sorts of things for something I hadn’t said. It was certainly not meant in the way it was taken. I am sure in the translation it was lost as well — I think it was through a Hindi channel but the translation was very different from what I said. And it was certainly not taken humourously.

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.

I think I can probably pick up, and even quicker than a player, that his mood has changed. Because just the way they step on the field, the body language and even to the minute detail of just a heavy tread in the ground as opposed to someone who is quite light on their feet…it’s an environment that I feel totally comfortable in and I don’t feel that stressful.

The environment I find stressful is – being in the hotel room with people and cameras everywhere. They are looking for a photograph that they can use, so they don’t want you necessarily smiling and looking happy and enjoying yourself. But if you are standing there with your finger on your chin in a thoughtful pose then it can be used with a headline. I am even aware where the photographers are when we are out in the cricket field.

Anuradha SenGupta: I am an Indian, I work in television…

Greg Chappell: We all have got problems so don’t tell me your problems.

Anuradha SenGupta: What I was saying is that it’s a collective team effort which helps me in getting this interview go on air. Why is it that we are constantly accused, and one of your concerns has been, that the Indian team is really not a team?

Greg Chappell: Life in India is about survival. It’s a lot about looking after yourselves otherwise you can’t survive. People don’t queue in India because you might miss out on something. So, it is very much about the individual. But cricket is an individual game even though one plays in a team – a batsman has to play against 11 opposition members. But then again there are a lot of nuances in the game like running between wickets, backing up in the field, which are what makes it a team effort. It’s the extra one percent here and there that can make the difference in a game. However, I am not sure whether the system here inculcates that well enough for it to show up consistently in the cricket field.

Anuradha SenGupta: Does it cross your mind sometimes that at least for India or Indians, Greg Chappell will be remembered by his later career or by his new avtaar of a coach than that of a legendary batsman?

Greg Chappell: It’s not something that I am concerned about because I don’t think about the life gone by. For instance I have never watched videotapes of myself playing cricket. So what is happening today is more important than what happened yesterday. What people think of me is their business and not mine. It’s what I remember myself as is most important. I sort of remember my career but it seems a long time ago and it feels like a different life now. So, this is my life and I like the challenges now. I mean I could have stayed in Australia and lead a leisurely life with my feet up most of the time and playing golf but where is the challenge in that? I still consider myself very fortunate that I was given this opportunity to coach in India at this point of time.

Anuradha SenGupta: You said somewhere that “When I came into this role all I would hear and read is what the Indian team cannot do – it cannot chase and cannot field and so on and so forth.” What do you think now? Do you feel confident that the Indian team can do it?

Greg Chappell: The constant hammering that the team takes and still manages to go and play good cricket most of the time I think is exceptional. I don’t think there is any team that can cope with this kind of hammering. Also 300 odd days of cricket is probably 50 per cent more that what anyone else plays. So, physically and mentally it’s more demanding than any other team. I read in the papers last year or the year before, after the loss in the Ashes, the Australian players wanted to rest. They don’t know what cricket is.

Anuradha SenGupta: Yes, in terms of volume and the sheer amount that the Indians can play.

Greg Chappell: And also the amount of spotlight that the Indian team is under all the time.

Anuradha SenGupta: Are we in danger, the Indian cricket board, the Indian cricket system and all of us, of killing the golden goose? Is that what is happening?

Greg Chappell: It is a serious problem and it needs to be addressed. I have talked about this many times within the cricket circles and I don’t get the feeling that anyone is really listening.

Anuradha SenGupta: Come on Greg why would anyone listen? Everyone is following the money.

Greg Chappell: I mean it is a problem. Money might not always be there but you need a system that develops cricket and players do need to rest. We have some of the best cricketers in this team but they will be worn out long before their end.

Anuradha SenGupta: You mentioned how you need to be on your guard because of the scrutiny that cricketers and everybody associated with the game is put under in this country. Now the kind of public anger and ire that was aroused when Sourav Ganguly was out of the team and your effigies were burnt, how do you deal with it? Do you have a thick skin or it is like a turtle like carapace? How do you insulate yourself from all of that?

Greg Chappell: It’s difficult but then some days are better than the others. But then again I can’t do anything about it. I can’t change it and I wouldn’t change it in the sense that the decisions that I have been involved in are not solely mine. There are other people also involved in these decisions. Once we have made a decision it is based on good cricket logic and good sense and we are convinced it is the right thing for the team then the decision has to be made. Now we have no control over the fall-out of that decision. Best is to let it go and get on with the job.

Anuradha SenGupta: When two people part ways, in the way we read and heard about you and Sourav Ganguly did, when you come back to work together like you are now how do you go about it? Is their awkwardness or do you just say hi and get on with it?

Greg Chappell: We have had two or three periods where Sourav has gone out and then come in again. We both are professionals and we both have jobs to do. But I suppose it’s hard for Indians to understand that there was nothing personal in it. The decision was based on cricket logic and a situation. So that’s the end of the story. Sourav needed the break, he got it and he has come back in a better form.

Anuradha SenGupta: Do you see Sourav’s comeback as one of the biggest successes of what you want to do with this team?

Greg Chappell: I don’t judge it in that light but I think the proof is in the pudding. He has comeback as much more relaxed. He has worked on areas that he needed to work on and he has played well. Breaks can sometimes be the best thing for you because sometimes one is not aware of what is going on.

Anuradha SenGupta: But when such harsh things have been said or supposed to have been said and there is a lot of nudge-nudge and wink-wink about whose manipulating what then can you say that it’s not personal and get on with the work at hand?

Greg Chappell: Absolutely. It is something that I have no problem with because there weren’t many harsh things said. I mean if the truth is harsh then there were harsh things said. But an honest assessment of the situation was given. Now how someone else receives it is their business. It is my job to give an honest assessment so it’s no good me kidding somebody that they are going better than they are. Now if they can’t deal with it then… Maybe it also says something about why they are not in the team and I am not talking necessarily about a particular incident. You can say things in many ways but sometimes the best thing you can hear is the truth that you need to take a good look at yourself because this is not working.

Anuradha SenGupta: You just said that a lot of people have agendas. How do you as a coach and mentor ensure that everybody believes that you have no agenda?

Greg Chappell: I am constant and consistent. I should given the same messages over and over again, which is what we do in this job.

Anuradha SenGupta: Do you have a soft side?

Greg Chappell: This is my soft side. The great thing about this job for me is that I am emotionally involved. And if I am not emotionally involved then I don’t think I can do the job.

Anuradha SenGupta: Herschelle Gibbs’s comments about the Pakistanis which could have been racist; Dean Jones’ inadvertent, off-the-cuff remark which is again not very pleasant—do you think we are being too politically correct, all of us. I mean what’s wrong if I say ‘You bloody Aussie’ once in a while, is that okay to say?

Greg Chappell: Absolutely, it’s not true, you can say that.

Anuradha SenGupta: I am not all saying that it okay to be racist, but having said that are we overreacting. Are things getting blown out of proportions? Not just Indians, generally.

Greg Chappell: Yes, I think so. I think we have tried to become too politically correct; having said that I will say there is no place in the sporting field for abuse. Whether it is verbal abuse, whether it is racial abuse, religious—there is no place for that.

But having grown up on the sporting field—I mean a bit of banter, backwards and forwards, is no big deal. If someone wants to abuse me on the cricket field I will take it as a compliment because the only reason they would be doing it is because I am annoying them. I am probably succeeding.

Anuradha SenGupta: Every Indian has an opinion on how you could do your job better and how the cricketer could play the game better. There is a view that’s floating around, and I have picked it up, that your style of coaching or managing the Indian cricket team ignores the realities of the Indian system, which is factions, zonal differences. Instead of manipulating those to get what you want, you have sort of ignored those factors.

Greg Chappell: I don’t have a lot of time to try and mould the team, build the team. The group that I inherited had some senior players and we brought some younger players…sort of trying to un-bake a cake and then try to put it back together again. Sometimes there is no easy way of doing it, you just gotta mash it all up and start again. And sometimes chaos is the best way to create change. Within a very short space of time, we set a world record chase, and I don’t know whether we could have done that by being gentle and kind and being aware of everybody’s sensibilities. Because nobody is aware of your sensibilities when you are out there in the middle, they are trying to knock your head off.

Now I am sure I could have done things differently, I am sure could have done things better in some ways. I mean in 12 months time I hope I will have more tools than I have got right now. Right now probably I have got better tools than when I started off. So, again, it is a work in progress and I am a work in progress. I have changed a lot, I am sure, in the 20 months or so I have been here. I think I am more patient, I think I more able to handle criticism. Thankfully, it’s only my effigy that’s being burnt and not me.

Anuradha SenGupta: So if the job comes back to you, if the job is yours for the taking after the contract runs out, do you want it?

Greg Chappell: I would like to think that I can go on longer in this role but it might be that someone else decides that I don’t. It might be that I decide don’t. I would like to think that I will feel strong enough and capable enough to go on but it may not be my decision.

Anuradha SenGupta: Do you want to bet on how your team, how your boys will fare in the World Cup?

Greg Chappell: No, because I don’t know.

Anuradha SenGupta: You are not dead certain?

Greg Chappell: No, I am not dead certain.

Anuradha SenGupta: Does that bother you; that you don’t know what way it will go?

Greg Chappell: John Buchanan is not dead certain.

Anuradha SenGupta: You don’t think so?

Greg Chappell: No, they are not guaranteed to win the World Cup. The odds will tell you that they should win the World Cup, and I would think that they will be the best team once we get to the World Cup and they should win it. But there is no guarantee they will, there have been other teams that have lost the World Cup that people thought should win it. Well, there have been surprise results. India in 1983 was a surprise result. We can win the World Cup but I won’t bet on it. I think the only guarantee I can give you is that we will go there and give it the best shot we have got.

Anuradha SenGupta: I am going to end on a personal note. The cricketing genes seems to have skipped a generation where your family is concerned and where you are concerned. Do you hope that your grandchildren will play cricket?

Greg Chappell: It would be wonderful if they play cricket, but I hope they do whatever they want to do.

Anuradha SenGupta: I want you to be emotional for a change, Greg Chappell. Come on, be a little Indian.

Greg Chappell: No, no I am sorry. I know how hard it is, but it would be fantastic if there was another Chappell or one of our daughters children played Test cricket for Australia I would be the proudest man in the world. But it is not something that I lie awake in the night dreaming of or thinking about.

Anuradha SenGupta: The only dreams you have about is coaching.

Greg Chappell: Absolutely, I haven’t go time to get dreams about grandchildren and things like that. So, what will be will be.

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