PICTURE SPEAK

COLD WAR: Chappell (left); Ganguly

In the business centre of the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, there was a moment of wholly appropriate dark humour when Sunil Gavaskar handed a sheaf of papers back to Sourav Ganguly. It was the six-page, 21-point refutation of coach Greg Chappell's allegations about the Indian cricket captain's conduct. Much like Chappell's e-mail, it too was a pretty unpleasant document. The Indian captain was handed all six copies of the document back, starting with Gavaskar's. A committee member quipped, "We don't want any more leaks."

Too late. The ship is sinking and a sprinkling of people in that room have played their part in the accident that is now waiting to happen. Ganguly, captain of India, and Chappell, the team's high-profile new coach, have been involved in the most vicious public personality clash the sport has seen in decades (see box below).

CHAPPELL'S OFFENSIVE FORM: Sourav Ganguly is not physically or mentally fit to lead, prone to panicking. TEAM MORALE: Ganguly indulges in a divide and rule plan to stay captain and secure his middle order spot. He reportedly told V.V.S. Laxman that Greg Chappell didn't want him in the team. When confronted, couldn't come up with a defence. TRAINING: The skipper does the least fitness and training work based on the criterion developed by the support staff to monitor the workload of the players. Often uses the pretext of injury to escape playing the quicker bowlers. MANIPULATION: He changes the batting order to suit his whims and fancies. GANGULY'S COUNTER-ATTACK FITNESS: Sourav Ganguly said he did 20 sessions instead of 18 in Zimbabwe. He admitted that his work rate could be better but said he did the sessions assigned. TEAM MORALE: Accused Greg Chappell of having a detrimental effect on the morale of players, of stirring up insecurity with an intimidating tone. Chappell himself is looking to play people against one another by asking others their views on Ganguly faking injuries. ATTITUDE: Chappell sleeps in the dressing room even when the game is on. He sent e-mails criticising players to members of the press. MANIPULATION: In Sri Lanka, when Ganguly wasn't captain, the batting order was changed in every game.

Almost as if each man was standing in front of a mirror and shouting at it Ganguly and Chappell accused each other of destroying team morale, of trying to divide and rule, misrepresenting facts and sabotaging V.V.S. Laxman's career. Now that they have been forced to work together, between them they could end up doing precisely all that. These two, who should not be able to stand being in the same building, let alone the same bus, have been handed the responsibility of guiding a flailing team.

MULTI-MEDIA CIRCUS: BCCI chief Mahendra (seated right at table) and Nair (seated left) announce the result of the four-hour review panel meeting

In the one-day game, India is ranked ahead of only West Indies, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh and will resume play with a seven-match one-day series against Sri Lanka from October 25. "It's going to be a challenge for both of them," says Javagal Srinath, former pace bowler. "I'm not sure it's going to work." Never mind the sugarcoating, Sri, for the Indian cricket team today, the combination of Ganguly, 33, and Chappell, 57, is a recipe for disaster. Concocted by a special committee consisting of the ruling patriarchs of Indian cricket and three of India's most distinguished players. A mighty collection of men and a midget of a solution. The review committee technically had no power to take strong decisions, but they made no bold statement either. The vacuum of meaningful leadership that exists in the Indian team is only a trickledown from the Board that runs it.

PEACE BROKERS The BCCI's review panel of heavyweights questioned the Indian captain and coach about their fracas in Zimbabwe. Not empowered to take action, the panel also chose not to reprimand Chappell and Ganguly.

JAGMOHAN DALMIYA Told an associate a day after the leaked Chappell e-mail that a compromise would be worked out and all kinds of ruffled feathers would be soothed. He spoke of the need for both parties to rein themselves in and asked Chappell to refrain from e-mailing friends in cricketing and media circles with information about the team. SUNIL GAVASKAR The former India captain and legendary opener, seen to be on Ganguly's side, questioned Chappell about his decision to send a report on the incident in the middle of the tour, to which the coach replied that manager Amitabh Choudhury had said that BCCI chief Ranbir Singh Mahendra had asked for an e-mailed explanation. RAVI SHASTRI The former India captain and allrounder was the most aggressive of the interrogators and chose to be particularly tough on Ganguly. The only moment the temperature in the room rose a little was when he asked Ganguly, "Do you realise now that this entire chain of events has been started by you?" S. VENKATARAGHAVAN The former India captain and ICC elite umpire posed several questions to Chappell about the team. For example, why bowlers could not bowl on one side of the wicket. To Ganguly he recounted an incident where he heard he had been sacked from the captaincy on an airplane and had chosen not to make a fuss about it.

The peace deal is a halfway house or as former captain Bishan Singh Bedi called it, the "creation of calm". "When calm is created, upheaval is around the corner." As if Indian cricket needs any more. The BCCI has spent the past year fighting court cases that began around the award of a television rights contract that should have been settled in January 2004. Its 2005 election was dominated by more legal cut and thrust and ended in a stalemate, with rival groups turning Ganguly vs Chappell into an electoral issue. Jagmohan Dalmiya's opposition promised that if they came to power Ganguly would be sacked-because then "their" selection committee would call the shots.

Bet you didn't know that Ganguly was not captain of India, merely captain of the BCCI's ruling group. The captain and coach may each believe it is he who controls the fate of the team; in reality all that stands between them and free fall is a puppet-master deciding whether or not to cut a string. Their uneasy compromise is proof. "Two big egos were clashing," says a national selector. "Nothing else could be done. You can't drop Ganguly but the only way he walks into the team is as the captain."

From the issue of Ganguly's place in the Indian playing XI-a hard, cricketing question which was indefinitely delayed by the selectors so the coach felt he had to address it-the debate moved into the realm of bombast. This uncomfortable partnership resumes in October and will immediately create parallel power centres because neither Ganguly nor Chappell, who appear to mistake grace for weakness, will want to be seen as backing off. Their public squabble will not cease, it will only retreat into private domain. Players will either take sides or remain uncomfortably perched on a fence.

Chappell was to be the master-strategist who would knock off the team's rough edges and shake out its bad habits. He may still be the man with the plan. But unless executed by those they are meant for, plans are only pieces of paper. The transfer of Chappell's big idea has not gone down as smoothly or comprehensively as expected.

HUDDLE IN A MUDDLE: When they play their next tournament, the team will live with a captain and a coach who have hurled abuse at one another

Today, the core of the team is wary and weary because they understand that they live with deeper crises which receive not even a fraction of the attention given to the saga of the cheap handshake. The Indian team is ageing and needs quality back-up for the batsmen, replacements for ginger bowlers and, as always, top class fielders.

In the new kingdom of two kings, all that can be expected is double trouble. If the coach wants you to go in at No. 3 and the captain thinks No. 6 works better, where do you fit in? In the future, how could either Ganguly or Chappell, fairly self-regarding individuals both, stand up in a meeting and emphasise that the team was sacred, the team came first and hope to convince anyone they mean it any more?

To think that once they were endorsements for one another. Ganguly vigorously backed Chappell for the India job after the Australian helped him emerge from a slump in 2003 to construct a defiant Test century. In a private meeting with Ganguly, Steve Waugh said India's best option for coach was Aussie Tom Moody. The majority of the team also preferred Moody, who now works with Sri Lanka, but Ganguly's backing swung it for Chappell. "I should have listened to Steve," Ganguly is reported to have said to a friend. When a frazzled Ganguly turned to his mates in confusion more than one responded: "You brought him in, didn't you?" bookending it with expletives.

JOHN WRIGHT

Different Folks Chappell takes a pot shot at his predecessor, who says the new coach must be given a chance and Ganguly's time may be up Ever since he took over as India's coach, Greg Chappell has gone to great lengths to emphasise that he was going to be "different" from his predecessor, New Zealander John Wright. His now-famous e-mail to the BCCI contained an unseemly parting shot at Wright. "John Wright obviously allowed this (Sourav Ganguly's alleged misdeeds) to go on to the detriment of the team. I am not prepared to sit back and allow this to continue." When contacted by India Today, Wright, named coach of the World XI for the Super Series, said, "I am very disappointed to hear that. In any coaching role you can put the blame on any number of factors you care to name but ultimately it's up to you to manage the people and the environment you are in and to get results on the field." He added, "Having said that, Greg has had the job for only five months and he deserves a chance to implement his ideas." Asked about the Indian captaincy, Wright said, "Sourav has been a successful captain for over five years but that's a long time. If you are performing individually and the team keeps winning then that's okay. But if not, then more than likely, someone else deserves a chance." Wright took over as India coach after the match-fixing scandal and his tenure was marked by some of the team's best results in Tests, both home and away, a World Cup final, a low-profile style of functioning and a singular lack of drama of the kind that has erupted over the past three weeks. Going by Chappell's comments, it is highly unlikely that the two men would have had a long, friendly yarn about the challenges of working with India before the legendary Australian took over world cricket's most passionately supported team. Five months after the New Zealander left the country, Indian cricket has kept following Wright. "The trouble with all this public bickering is that it's not doing the team or Indian cricket any favours. I'm sick of it-and I've been in New Zealand building a garden shed."

Knowing Chappell's reputation, Ganguly would have expected a certain degree of plainspeak but he would have never anticipated being asked to quit and then shredded in a 2,000-word e-mail. It was read by most of the team in Zimbabwe when one of them accidentally opened it while fiddling around with the coach's computer for entertainment. The e-mail has now put Ganguly's batting, character and conduct under a perpetual microscope.

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