Let It Not Be Greg, Please!

The 1st of February 1981 will forever be remembered as one of the darkest days in cricketing history. The setting was the third final of the Benson and Hedges World Series Cup between Australia and New Zealand at the MCG. New Zealand needed to score six runs to tie the match with one ball remaining. The last ball was to be bowled by Trevor Chappell to Kiwi number 10 Brian McKechnie. Australian captain Greg Chappell ordered his brother Trevor to bowl underarm removing any chance New Zealand had to tie the match. Sevaral of the Australian players like Rod Marsh were found shaking their heads in disgust. McKechnie threw his bat down in fury after defending the delivery. Even the most avid Australian supporters booed Chappel. For an entire generation of cricket lovers born after this infamous incident the name Greg Chappell is synonymous with the underarm ball. The shadow of that one incident is so huge that despite of an astounding average of 53.86 in Test cricket Chappell is never mentioned in the same breath as the all time greats of the game. And rightfully so. And now this man who instrumented one of three things, which brought disrepute to the game (the other two being bodyline and match fixing),is tipped to be the most likely candidate to succeed John Wright as India’s coach. The very thought is unthinkable to me as an avid supporter of the game. Do we need this man who brought such infamy to the gentleman’s game to coach us? Of course Greg Chappell should be forgiven for what he did as must people like Azhar or the late Hansie Cronje and others involved in match fixing. If Azhar,Salim Malik or Chappell are itching to serve the cricketing fraternity they can do so as commentators or cricket writers. But somewhere the line MUST be drawn. Letting Chappell become the coach of an international team is sending all the wrong signals-you can do anything in cricket and get away with it. We already have more than our share of woes as a cricketing nation with the likes of Dalmia and A.C.Muthiah treating the game like their family business. Like Rajdeep Sardesai would say I hope somewhere down the line sanity prevails and either Tom Moody or Jimmy Amarnath become the coach (who are the other contenders for the job).The third alternative simply MUST NOT BE.