Chappell v/s Moody

So who will be Team India’s next coach? Anyone who has even remotelysomething to do with cricket is being asked this question. Will it be one of thetwo Australians – Greg Chappell or Tom Moody – or will it be an Indiananswering to the name of Mohinder Amarnath or Sandip Patil who takes over thereigns that John Wright left last month. Or will Allan Border emerge from theshadows of the unknown candidates and walk away with the key job?

I reckon Moody and Chappell, 56, will feature more prominently than others,more so since the senior players in the Indian team may be veering towards oneor the other. Moody, 39, comes in with strong recommendations but it is a bitworrying that Worcestershire, where, he has made his name as a coach, has hadfour captains in as many seasons.

Sunil Gavaskar, one of the three former India captains in the six-man panelthat will find Wright’s successor, took a dig in his recent syndicated columnat how the Indian players paid more attention to an overseas coach than someonefrom India. And, as irony would have it, he was reported to have made a strongcase for his old friend, Border.

There are some who are sold on this idea that AB has quit his position asselector of the Australian cricket team with this in mind. There are others whosee an indication in the manner in which some TV channels jumped the gun inannouncing AB as the leading candidate. Now, where did that come from?

As for some others who may be in the race – the mystery men from overseas– I wonder who these really are. Why would the Board president even want tolet out something like this at this stage? Would it not have been prudent tomake no mention of that fact at all? Like everyone else, I have been leftguessing.

Viv Richards? Bob Woolmer? Dav Whatmore? Graham Ford? Rod Marsh? Or, SteveWaugh, who has ostensibly ruled himself out of taking a long-term position?Indeed, the Great Indian Guessing Game just got more intriguing.

To my mind, the candidatures of Patil and Amarnath have been announced onlyto ensure that the Board is seen as being fair to Indian coaches. Amarnath maysecure the respect of the players more than Patil, whose credentials as aninternational coach are better, given that he has coached Kenya to a World Cupsemifinal berth in 2003.

What is certain is that one of the candidates has been eliminated, though. Itmust be surmised that Dean Jones’s bid to become coach of the Indian team –and there was nothing secretive about it – has met a quick end. Just as well.For a man with no coaching experience to write home about, it must be said thatJones was quite ambitious.

Talking of the panel that will choose the coach, the Board has been seen insuch poor light that nearly everyone has questioned former president JagmohanDalmiya’s presence in the panel. Logic suggests he is there in his capacity asthe immediate past president of the Board than in any other role.