Saturday, 18 January 2025
Saturday, 18 January 2025
The parallels between the turmoil in the Indian cricket team under coach Gautam Gambhir and the controversial Chappell era (2005-2007) have become difficult to ignore as leaked dressing room conversations make headlines, a captain's form becomes national debate, and the coach's methods raise eyebrows.
Former team India cricketer Harbhajan Singh was the one who spelt it out.
"Gautam Gambhir is new,” Harbhajan said on his YouTube channel on Thursday. “He has to get to know the players. The players have to know him. Without chemistry, it will not work. I have seen this before. In the 2006-08 era when Greg Chappell was the coach, I saw the entire dressing room crash down. The reason was that players started to play the blame game. How did the media get to know so many things?"
Two decades ago, Indian cricket navigated through one of its darkest phases when former Australian cricketer Greg Chappell, who had worked with the Pakistan cricket team earlier, was handpicked by then-India captain Sourav Ganguly.
Ganguly was close to then Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Jagmohan Dalmiya. Ganguly had reportedly bypassed consultation with other senior players.
Gambhir's appointment as head coach was backed by BCCI secretary Jay Shah. Media reports suggested that Shah, son of home minister Amit Shah, strongly favoured Gambhir's appointment.
Chappell inherited a team with several seniors, such as Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Anil Kumble approaching retirement. Gambhir has also faced the challenge of managing cricketers who are in the winter of their careers – like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami.
The task of ensuring a smooth transition fell to both coaches, and the road has turned out to be equally tough.
The current crisis reached its boiling point in Melbourne, where India's dramatic batting collapse – losing seven wickets in just 20.4 overs – prompted a stern dressing room warning from Gambhir.
According to reports in The Indian Express, the coach's message was simple: "enough is enough."
He reportedly criticised players for hiding behind the notion of "natural game" rather than adapting to match situations.
The incident bears striking resemblance to Chappell's reported confrontational style that often put him at odds with even established players other than Ganguly.
For instance, during India's tour of Zimbabwe, Chappell gave a stern warning to Laxman for substituting himself. Even Sachin Tendulkar alleged that months before the 2007 World Cup, Chappell came to his house and asked him to take over the India captaincy, saying "Together, we could control Indian cricket for years."
The situation with captain Rohit Sharma mirrors the Ganguly saga of 2005.
Reports suggest Gambhir wanted Rohit to retire after the Melbourne Test, with Rohit's scores of 3, 6, 10, 3, and 9 in Australia following a lean patch in home series against Bangladesh and New Zealand.
It is similar to how Chappell had asked Ganguly to step down during the Zimbabwe tour in September 2005. Ganguly had not scored a Test century for almost two years then.
The dressing room leaks that characterised the Chappell era have made an unwelcome return. The latest controversy involves Gambhir allegedly accusing Sarfaraz Khan of leaking team discussions to the media.
This mirrors the infamous email leak of 2005, where Chappell's critical assessment of Ganguly found its way to the press, leading to a major controversy.
According to ESPN Cricinfo, Chappell had accused Ganguly of desperately hanging on to his captaincy, even at the cost of harming the team's harmony. He raised questions about Ganguly's mental and physical fitness.
The performance graphs show similarities too. Under Gambhir's brief tenure, India has already experienced unprecedented setbacks. The team lost its first ODI series to Sri Lanka in 27 years and suffered its first home Test series defeat in three consecutive matches since 2012 against New Zealand.
The batting collapses, particularly the record low of 46 all out against New Zealand in Bengaluru, echo the team's struggles during the Chappell era, especially in ODIs, which culminated in the disastrous 2007 World Cup campaign.
Under Chappell, India in ODIs registered only 13 victories in 34 matches abroad.
The BCCI's response to the current crisis also mirrors their handling of the Chappell-era controversies.
A recent two-hour review meeting with Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir concluded with the board deciding against any knee-jerk reactions.
Subsequent reports about potential policy changes, including restrictions on players' spouses traveling during tours, suggest deeper issues within the team environment.
During the Chappell-Ganguly spat, the BCCI summoned both of them to a meeting in Mumbai in September 2007. The board formed a committee, comprising Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Srinivas Venkataraghavan, along with Ranbir Singh Mahendra, the board president, S.K. Nair, the secretary, and Dalmiya to review the performances of the Indian team.
This took place right after the leak of Chappell’s email.
But there are differences between the Chappell and Gambhir tenures too.
Former cricketer Suresh Raina, in June 2021, had said: “Greg is the number one talent-hunter. He always ensured that the youngsters got their due in the Indian team. And he played an enormous role in getting the likes of R.P. Singh, M.S. Dhoni, S. Sreesanth, Murali Kartik and Irfan Pathan among others to play for India with a lot of success…. There were some tense moments within the dressing room during Greg’s tenure as our coach…we as younger players would never be involved in such situations…In my eyes, Greg was never wrong, since he always strived to make sure the team was on its toes and never favoured any one player.”
This comes in stark contrast to Gambhir, who accused the young Sarfaraz Khan of being a media mole.
Another difference is unlike Chappell, who was seen as an outsider attempting to implement Australian methods in Indian cricket, Gambhir brings knowledge of India's domestic structure and cricket culture.
His successful stint as coach of Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2024 should also help him manage the team.
The current Indian team, despite recent setbacks, remains one of the most professionally run setups in world cricket. The infrastructure, support systems, and talent pipeline are stronger than what they were during the Chappell era.
Insights from the Chappell era serves as both a warning and a lesson. The coming months will be crucial in determining whether this is a rough patch or the beginning of another difficult chapter in Indian cricket.
