Greg Chappell: India, Australia in transition at the same time
(EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW)

Qaiser Mohammad Ali

MOHALI, Oct 21, 2008: Cricket throws up interesting co-incidences, and sometimes several of them at the same. While the talk of retirement of senior most players is renting the Indian cricket air, world No. 1 Australia too are about to undergo a period of transition. Fortunately for Australia, they have found a man who has seen two big transition periods to guide the board through this period and rebuild the team of the future.

Greg Chappell, a great batsman and the Indian team’s coach from 2005 to 2007, Rodney Marsh and Dennis Lillee had all quit the international scene together in early 1980s. Their retirement created a big void in national team and there was another crisis when almost all the top players, led by Kim Hughes, undertook a rebel tour of South Africa, also in mid-1980s, and were banned from official cricket as that country at the time was barred by the International Cricket Council due to apartheid. Chappell was a selector during this period and he had helped build an almost new team, led by Allan Border.

Former captain Chappell, having seen these two crisis-ridden periods, has now been appointed the head of Cricket Australia’s (CA) Commonwealth Bank Centre of Excellence (COE). Amongst his responsibilities is the moulding and preparing the replacements for the likes of Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke and Matthew Hayden in the next three years.

“The Australian cricket is going through an interesting stage at the moment. This team is in transition; it’s a very different team now than has been in recent times with a few senior players coming to the end of their careers. So, basically, in the next 18 months to two years this will be a new-look team, with Ponting and Clarke as the senior players and a lot of young players. So, it’s an exciting time to be taking over the COE,” Chappell told me in the lounge of the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium here immediately after Australia’s defeat.

“When I look back to the mid 1980s when I was a selector, we had to go through a similar process of finding the types of players that will have a chance of succeeding at the international cricket. And that will be my role at the COE, to work out with other state coaches and selectors and so on,” he said, minutes after a meeting with captain Ricky Ponting and the coach Tim Nielson.

Chappell, who is in India with the Australian team for the first two Tests of the ongoing series, pointed out that Australia plays a unique brand of cricket and his job at the Brisbane-based academy would be to nurture players who could meet greater demands from the three formats of the game – Test, One-Day International and Twenty20.

“The type of cricket that Australia wants to play needs the type of players that will best suit that structure and game plan. It’s not rocket science. You need good combinations of bowling, you need aggressive batsmen, good fielders, good catching – the modern cricketer is going to face greater demands on his ability and his mental capacities than ever before. Twenty20 is now a big part of the programme. So the cricketer of the future is going to look very different from the cricketer of the past,” said the 60-year-old master batsman who played 87 Tests and 74 ODIs.

Talking about his responsibility, Chappell said: “Well, it is a very important role. The COE academy was brought in for that reason: it was important to have the next generation of players ready to go.”

About his India visit he said that one of the reasons was “to understand a little bit more the requirements of the players here … to see what sort of things head coach Nielson looks for, what he needs to look at the team as it stands at the moment, and discuss with Ponting and the selectors about where do they feel their needs” lay.

“Therefore, what can we do at the COE that will best feed their needs because it’s no good turning out players that are not required. If we need left-arm spinners then we better find left-arm spinners; if we need tall fast bowlers then we better find tall fast bowlers. It’s no good turning out five-foot-ten-inch fast bowlers when they need six-foot-six-inch fast bowlers … so, all of those things,” he said.

Veteran Australian cricket writer Mike Coward, now in India to cover the series, said that quality players are difficult to replace. “Greg, Marsh and Lillee were quality players. You can only replace them with good players,” said Coward, who has covered over 200 Tests and many ODIs. “Chappell will be good in the new (COE) position as he is excellent in one-on-one (coaching).”

NOTE: This was the only interview that Chappell gave during his stay in India in his new role with the Australian team. He left for home after the Mohali Test.