Team India on the rise

By Anand
November 4 2005

From the depths of despair, shame and uncertainty of matchfixing, did India rise under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly who led like a Prince.

Under him, India saw a refreshing change in approach and rose to great heights: winning overseas series, reaching WC finals, beating world champs and getting rid of regionalism and corruption that affected match fixing. More importantly, the captain had an attitude, and instilled pride and aggresion into the team that was sorely needed for a bruised nation and a team still smarting from the black mark of match-fixing.

It is perhaps ironic that the second coming of the rise of Team Ind has been built without the influence of the very person that was responsible for the team's rise the last time around. It is perhaps a bit unfair, but his absence may have in some way actually contributed to this recent success. Then again, life itself is unfair.

Rewind to Team India after the World Cup. The team had brilliant established players, a strong captain and a winning attitude. They were expected to reign for long but the script went horribly bad, like a promising Bollywood movie spoiled in the second half by half-baked ideas and poor performances and script.

The very loyalty and support Ganguly showed to his players became a noose around his neck. The players' performance dipped but there was no threat to their places. The captain still backed them to the hilt, and his own form dipped. A strong-minded man, he refused to see the slide and believed that the team and his motley crew of loyal followers would rise to the occasion again. He believed, but alas it was not to be. The slide worsened, compounded with injuries to the team's best player Sachin Tendulkar along with the captain's own poor form.

Then came the momentous change in the team management. Coach John Wright who played an important role in the ride with Ganguly's tigers was replaced by cricket great Greg Chappell! Ganguly supposedly was in favour of this move as Chappell had helped him in the past with his batting in Australia.

But the slide continued. In Sri Lanka, they looked a pale shadow of themselves. Too many problems had crept in: players injured or complacent, team unfocussed, lack of flexibility, same bunch of players playing repeatedly in spite of failures. What was even more worrying were signs of discord in the dressing room with players voicing displeasure in the post-match interviews even in the rare moments they were successful.

Surely, Ganguly wasn't responsible for all of these but he certainly wasn't helping India get back on the rails. Players he supported were failing, the team was losing and his own position as a leader was undermined. Greg Chappel is a man of strong principles himself and he was in a hurry to get the team back on the rails. In the process he didn't mind crushing a few feet or careers. His was a hard-nosed approach.

He started off by making fitness his top priority. That was the first danger sign for Ganguly, not the fittest and in recent times getting injured a lot. Secondly, his form showed no signs of regaining past glory. His game that once prompted Dravid to say, "In the offside, there is God and then Ganguly" had become the butt of jokes. Gone was the confident Offside God, replaced by an imposter who looked like a novice when facing quality bowling. He struggled in the ODIs in Zimbabwe before making a laborious ton in the Tests.

And then he made a statement that may have changed the course of Indian cricket. I won't delve too much into the statement or its politics about which much has been discussed and analysed. I would rather go into its results. The spat was now the main focus and the team looked in disarray. Ganguly's injury gave the selectors a window to make Dravid the captain for a long-term series. Chappell had lost the battle in the board meeting but seemed to have won the war!

The Dravid-Chappell duo started with a fresh slate, much like the Ganguly of old had done when he became captain. They started introducing younger players, a more flexible batting approach, and improved focus on fielding and aggression. All these are not new methods. Ganguly when he assumed captaincy did the same. He gave chances to young talented players like Yuvraj, Bhajji, Sehwag, etc and shook up old-timers like Dravid, Kumble, etc by creating competition for their spots. He changed the batting order, making Sehwag open, Dravid keep, and dropping Kumble. But then, he failed to carry that policy through. The youngsters he established were now old-timers and he stopped continuing his policies towards them. He became inflexible with the bunch of loyal players supporting him. The Chappell-Dravid duo are doing the same thing that Gangs did early in his captaincy to achieve stupendous success.

It is not a new "Chappell" policy or "Dravid policy"; it is the introduction of fresh talented blood, creating competition for places, a hard-nosed aggressive approach and strong basics. Cricket is a game of basics as Chappell likes to say, and the team that does the basics well will have a better chance of winning consistently. That's why the Aussies win a lot. Team India is on the rise again under the Chappell-Dravid duo because they have discarded the staleness and instilled a fresh aggresive approach where spots in the teams are based on talent and performance rather than past history.

They have made a great start and should take lessons from the past history of Ganguly's tenure. The approach of aggression, flexibility and competetiveness should continue to keep the tem fresh and motivated. If they continue to do this, Team India will rise again -- perhaps to greater glory than under our Prince.