'Captaincy a bit like pornography'

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript" src="Config?Configid=43376741"></script><br /><img align="left" src="/photo/257284.cms" alt="/photo/257284.cms" border="0" />MUMBAI: <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Ian Chappell is a quintessential Australian. His dry humour, no-nonsense demeanour as a player, captain and a commentator have invited plenty of criticism.But his fans and majority of the cricketing fraternity respect him as one of the leading thinkers of the game and a respected commentator world wide. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-style:="" italic="">The former Australian captain is in Mumbai to take part in the seventh Ceat International Cricket Awards. In an interview with him at the poolside of a city hotel, Chappell voices his opinions on the awards, his commentating stint and India''s chances on the tour to Australia.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">As one of the founding members of the Ceat International Cricket Awards, you must be thrilled at how popular the awards have become?</span><br /><br />Yeah. It''s been terrific. Also the way in which the function''s evolved over the years has been very impressive. It makes me feel as if I have been involved in something worthwhile as a judge.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">The Australians have the Allan Border medal awards back home. How are these awards similar or different to that?</span><br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><br />There are a few similarities. One of them being the combination of showbiz and cricket. The Allan Border medal award night has bands playing and we have a comedy show. The Ceat Awards also combines Bollywood and cricket which are two of the most popular activities in India.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Brian Lara struggled for quite some time after his record-breaking feat. Hayden also looked extremely scratchy in the first One-Dayer against India in Gwalior. Given the fact that he is playing in different conditions, does breaking such a huge record put pressure on a batsman?</span><br /><br />I wouldn''t think so. You''re really asking the wrong bloke because I never made scores anywhere near the 300 mark. But I can''t see how making 300 odd puts pressure on you. If anything, it does the exact opposite and helps you relax a bit more. Hayden got a brilliant 100 in the next Test at Sydney. So I wouldn''t say he has been scratchy since. But scoring 380 requires such an enormous feat of concentration that it drains a batsman mentally. After such a long innings one feels let down mentally.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Like most ex-captains, you too are a commentator and a celebrated one at that. Does captaining a team help you read the game better as a commentator and offer the viewer a broader perspective on the game?</span><br /><br />I think the whole experience of playing cricket is very good training for you to become a commentator. Certainly your training as a batsman. Because you know as a batsman if you lose concentration, you make a mistake and if you make a mistake you get out. Same thing happens in television. When I commentate, I try and act as captain of both the teams. What''s a team doing that''s got them on top of this match and what can the other team do to get out of trouble and get back to a position of strength. <br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Staying with commentary, how disappointing was it to have been banned by the ICC during the World Cup?</span><br /><br />That turned out to be not the case according to the e-mail I got from Mr Malcolm Speed''s office. Yes, you always want to be at a big event like that. But I must say I wasn''t bothered about staying home and not travelling around for that length of time. I was doing the World Cup anyway from the studio back home in Australia. I think I got the best deal because I stayed at home and still managed to watch the World Cup.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section3"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Known to take a tough stand against issues and sticking up for the rights of individuals, you spoke up for the rights of the pioneer aborigines. Has your support made any difference to the movement? </span><br /><br />Not much at the moment. We haven''t got anywhere with the original aboriginal team. But eventually we will get somewhere. I think it is important that they are recognised as Australian cricketers. There is a bit of a precedent as the first ever Test match played in 1877 didn''t become a Test match until three years later. So the fact that these matches weren''t classed as Test matches people can say oh you can''t call them Australian cricketers. I feel that they paved the way for a lot of things that has happened with Australian cricket teams ever since and they deserve to be recognised as Australian cricketers. <br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">You were an aggressive batsman and later on an extremely aggressive captain. Did the aggression in your batting rub off on your captaincy? Does captaincy work like that?</span><br /><br />I don''t think so. I have seen a number of aggressive cricketers be very defensive captains. It doesn''t necessarily rub off. There have been defensive batsmen who became proactive and attacking captains. Mike Brealey was a classic example of that. In my case it helped that my grandfather was a very attacking Australian captain and my father a very aggressive sportsman and that''s the way we were brought up. It also helped that I played for South Australia under a very aggressive captain Les Favell.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">India had a disastrous tour of Australia the last time they toured in 1999-2000. There seems to be more optimism this time because of fast bowlers like Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and other quicks. How do you rate the Indian team''s chances this time?</span><br /><br />The reasons for their optimism need to be well thought out. Just thinking oh we have some quick bowlers and that''ll make a difference in Australia won''t turn out that way. What you need is good quick bowlers and they need to learn very quickly how to bowl in Australia. <br /><br />I am not sure how India are preparing for the tour this time, but in the past India''s preparation for a tour to Australia has been nowhere near good enough. And if they make those mistakes again then it won''t matter that you''ve got a couple of good quick bowlers. <br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section4"><div class="Normal"><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">You were a great fan of Mark Taylor''s captaincy despite being critical of his batsmanship. Steve Waugh is scoring runs but you''ve been critical of his captaincy.</span><br /><br />I think Mark Taylor was a better captain that Steve Waugh. Good captaincy is a bit like pornography. It is difficult to define but you know it when you see it. I just think that Mark Taylor had more flair as a captain. I don''t necessarily see Steve Waugh as the most aggressive captain I''ve ever watched under certain circumstances so that''s the way I judge him.<br /><br />You can''t judge a captain purely on wins and loses. <br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Were you surprised by the enormity of Cricket Australia''s reaction to sledging?</span><br /><br />I think a lot of that stuff is more for show and public deception. I really think sledging can be easily handled on the field by the umpires. It''s a simple case of distinguishing between gamesmanship which is an acceptable part in the game and it''s responsible for a lot of humour that has surrounded the game. <br /><br />And then we have abuse. If it''s abuse the player is spoken to by the umpire, if he carries on then he gets reported and hopefully he gets suspended for a decent amount of time. A lot of the other stuff is being done just to please the public which in my opinion is just window dressing. <br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Tony Greig proposed the idea of having two innings in a one day game of 25-overs-a-side to get rid of the predictability factor. Your reaction?</span><br /><br />I don''t think you can legislate to get rid of predictability. What you have to legislate is to allow captains to use their imagination a bit more or may be even force them to use their imagination a bit more. If there''s some scope for imagination amongst captains then you will get to see decent cricket. <br /><br />The 1996 World Cup was good to watch because of captains like Mark Taylor and Arjuna Ranatunga, who were keen to use their imagination. I''ve thought a bit about a two-innings 25-overs-a-side idea. And I think it has a bit of merit. There was a lot of argument during the World Cup about batting at night and batting during day time and the fact that it favoured one team more than the other. <br /><br />I don''t like to see the toss deciding a match and if there''s a likelihood of that happening then I would like to see both sides batting 25-overs in the day time and 25-overs in the night.</div> </div>