Case Study

Guru Greg and Indian Cricket Team

Phase I
In the year 2000, Ganguly stood up as a leader and accepted to become the captain of the Indian cricket team w the team was new. At that time, no one was ready to become the captain because the team was under the pres of match-fixing allegations. It was a difficult time, and the wrong man in the captain's position might have ruined the Indian cricket to an extent that it might never have recovered.

Ganguly was the man who gave the power and confidence to the team, which was instrumental in cricket team winning many series outside India like: reaching ICC Mini World Cup final, Natwest series, Australia test series, first series wins in both tests and GDIs in Pakistan, a feat that had eluded India for ov years and took unfancied India to runner-up position in World Cup 2003.

Ganguly led India in a record 49 Tests, winning 21 including 12 outside India— all the three figures arc recon for Indian Test captains. He also led India to more Test wins (II) outside India between 2000 and 2005 than all Indian captains had done between 1980 and 2000. He led India to victory over Australia in the 2001 Border-Gavaskar trophy— a feat considered one of the greatest in the Indian cricket history.

Ganguly was aggressive by nature and that made team more aggressive and strong. He was the first-ever Indian captain who created a confidence in the team to win overseas. It was under his captaincy that India started winning matches outside India, and he emerged as India's most successful ODI and Test captain. Ganguly was fondly called Maharaj by his teammates. He has to his credit the feat of having nurtured a number of young players, like Virendra Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, M.S. Dhoni, Zaheer Khan and Mohd. Kaif.

The core of Ganguly’s philosophy as captain was not to allow the youngsters to flounder, and this led to a self respect movement in the team. He worked wonders for his juniors and injected his self-confidence in the team, which was missing earlier. Ganguiy's youngsters, knowing they had his unstinted support, rallied behind him. He stood as a bulwark against the slings and arrows of selectors' fancies. Confidence was the name of the game— Ganguly had enough of it himself to distribute it among teammates as he was performing well as batsman and captain. As Ganguly built his team, he injected it with a large dose of self-belief.

In 2005, India was at the peak of confidence and the team was high on team spirit and very loyal to the captain. The dream of the team was to aim for the ultimate World Cup 2007. The height of glory attained by the Indian cricket team under Coach John Wright, led to a situation where Team India cricketers clearly stated their preference for a foreigner coach, not an Indian. Similar trend of preference for foreign coaches has also been observed in other cricket teams from South Asian countries, like Sri Lanka. Pakistan and Bangladesh.

After due diligence, comprehensive selection process and considering the preference of the team and the captain, legendary Greg Chappell was inducted as coach of the Indian cricket team in May 2005 for a two-year la until World Cup 2007 at a hefty annual salary of about 175,000 USD.

Chappell was a tremendous player of pace bowling and is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen ever to play for Australia, fie was an exceptional all-round player as he also bowled medium pace. at his retirement, he held the world record for the most catches in Test cricket. Chappell became the first Test batsman in history to score centuries in both his first and last Test innings. Of all the Test batsmen who have retired since 1974 and scorn more than 2,000 test runs. Chappell’s test batting average of 53.86 is the highest. In 2002, he was inducted into the prestigious Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.

Phase II
During Chappell's tenure, India had a record-breaking run of winning 17 ODIs while chasing and a Test series win in the West Indies. Few young players, like S Sreesanth and Dinesh Karthik, came into the national side and won acclaim for their performance. But, there were a series of controversies and personality clashes too, which arose from Chappell's hardline and no-nonsense attitude.

Chappell's joining the team coincided with a fall in the batting performance of its most successful captain ever. Chappell advised Ganguly to give up captaincy. He also had serious misgivings about India's fielding, running between the wicket, fitness and the attitude of the seniors towards fielding. But things unravelled pretty quickly because of the wide publicity given to Chappell's views on the captain in an email and different text messages to carefully chosen journalists. It led to a divisive influence on the team.

Chappell's tenure began with a bitter and public feud with Sourav Ganguly captain of the Indian cricket team at that time. Chappell made such serious allegations against Ganguly that the Press Trust of India called these allegations "extraordinary", and also said that nowhere in the world had a coach made written complaints against the captain of a team before!

Chappell made the following six observations against Ganguly in September 2005 in an e-mail that appeared in a leading Bengali daily, Ananda Bazar Patrika: (1) Ganguly is so interested in keeping his captaincy that he has always been creating differences among team members. (2). He has no physical or mental fitness to continue-as captain. (3). His leadership commands almost no faith or respect from team members. (4). He mostly complains of imaginary injuries. (5). Ganguly's attitude is not in the least ideal for India to strive for the 2007 World Cup or a better cricketing future. (6). He does not follow the fitness regime prescribed to him.

Chappell also alleged that Ganguly affected the team morale by making last-minute changes in his team. And, being a cowardly captain, he was affecting the team. Chappell's accusations were not a normal practice of a coach to accuse his own captain in the media. The BCCI brokered a peace between Ganguly and Chappell, but Ganguly was sacked within four months of Chappell's joining on account of his poor form.

This was followed by a war of words in the media between Chappell and senior Indian players, like Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan who came out to criticize his methods. Sehwag commented that he was not comfortable with the Australian as he had betrayed the trust of the players by leaking information to the media and selectors. Zaheer reported that a significant part of Chappell's tenure was "difficult time'. Harbhajan Singh came out in support of Ganguly and accused Chappell of following 'double standards'.

Ganguly was removed from the team, and Chappell was there to stay along with the spoilt relations with some of the team members. He came under intense criticism for tinkering with the batting lineup and unorthodox cricket coaching methods. For instance, he decided to change the batting order of highly successful opening batsman Sachin Tendulkar and sent him to bat in the middle order, which led to his poor performance. Consequently, India's success in one-day matches also diminished. This also negatively affected the performance of the other opener, Virender Sehwag.

Chappell was severely criticized for the manner in which he handled his players through the media. He often leaked information to his friends in the media and indirectly criticized a player through the press. He sent an SMS to an Indian journalist before World Cup 2007 that he was not satisfied with the selection of the team. He wanted more young players in the side than the older ones.

India's dismal performance in World Cup 2007 after losing from lowly ranked Bangladesh led to its early exit from the tournament. Ironically, winning this tournament was the very purpose for which Chappell was appointed as the coach of the team. With India's exit Greg Chappell's controversial tenure as India's coach came to an end Sachin Tendulkar summed up the situation in an interview published in The Times of India. 'We do realize that we played badly and, as a team, we take full responsibility for that, hut what hurt us most is if the coach has questioned our attitude.

Within hours of that interview being published, Chappell announced on April 4, 2007 that he would not be seeking an extension of his contract for his post as Indian coach. At the same time, there were rumours in the media about the possibility of the sacking of Chappell by BCCl from the position of coach because of the team's poor form and his difficult relationship with many players.

In a sting operation, executed by a private television channel 'Headlines Today1, the Indian cricket selectors were seen hurling intense criticism and crucifying former Indian coach Chappell along with senior players, blaming them for India's disastrous defeat in the World Cup campaign. According to the selectors, Chappell had a divide-and-rule policy which he used to create tractions in the team. Besides, senior players like Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly were not supporting the captaincy of Rahul Dravid. These attitudes ultimately became the reason for India's ignominious defeat in the Cricket World Cup 2007.

Questions for Discussion and Analysis 1. South Asia has produced great players. Why is it that the teams from the Sub-continent prefer foreign coaches? 2. 'Great players make great coaches'. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why? 3. How the learnings from this case study can guide a team leader in corporate setting? 4. How the interplay of intentions and actions of a team leader does affect the team spirit and its performance? 5. To what extent Greg Chappell is responsible for the exit of the Indian cricket team from the Cricket World Cup 2007°