Like many others I am sure, I was saddened to see Virender Sehwag left out of the Indian team this week. Despite my frustrations with him during my tenure as Indian coach I could not help but love him. He is, after all, a loveable rogue. And he can bat better than most.
In fact, he is the most gifted ball striker that I have seen. I remember well the first time I was able to watch him up close. It was in Bangalore soon after I began as national coach.
Viru arrived early for an Indian team camp at a time when 30 of the best pace bowlers from around India were finishing off a camp of their own. He asked if he could have a hit against some of them in a centre wicket session.
We were on the NCA ground which is wedged in the triangle formed by the confluence of Cubbon and Queen Roads to the side of Chinnaswamy stadium. The wicket was well grassed and bouncy, but he walked in with a new bat and hit everything sweetly from the middle.
Considering the wicket and that the bowlers were swinging, seaming and bouncing the ball disconcertingly, this was as awesome a display of menacing power and precision batting as I had witnessed. I was excited about working with someone with such sublime skill.
To say that Viru was one of the great frustrations of my time with the team is an understatement. Sadly, he continues to disappoint and is in danger of squandering his God-given talent. The person who is least likely to be fazed by all of this is Virender himself.
What I soon learned about him was that Viru did not want to dedicate himself to taking his talent to its zenith. He was happy to turn up and play and accept what came his way. No amount of cajoling from me could shift him from his insouciant way.
This often happens to those with the greatest gift. Because he had never had to work hard at developing such a skill, Viru did not know how to dedicate himself to disciplined training. It was only during periods of relative poor form that he was prepared to spend time getting things back on track. As soon as he made some runs he slipped back into old habits and appeared content to practise in the same old profligate way; until his form evaporated again.
His idea of a practice session was to hit the bowlers as hard and as far as he could as often as he could.
Most balls were hit in the air with no regard to whether or not they were out. I tried to encourage him to work on developing his range by playing each ball on its merit and developing some power shots on the leg side against pace.
Because Viru was so strong on the off side and only wanted to play on that side of the wicket, teams bowled very straight to him to deny him room to free his arms to hit the ball through that side.
I tried to explain to him that, if he was prepared to work on developing leg side options against the faster bowlers, it would, in fact, force them to bowl more to his strength. He wasn’t interested.
Frustrating
The other area of frustration for me was that he did not keep himself in good shape and would often be troubled by a back ailment that restricted him in the field and made him even less likely to want to put time into expanding his ability. Apart from his batting skills, he is a very talented off-spin bowler and he should have been the best slip fielder in the team, but he eschewed the responsibility at every opportunity.
Strangely, for someone who only wants to play the game on his terms, he harbours a desire to captain his country. I have no doubt that he could do it for he understands the game well, but what he fails to grasp is that with the honour comes responsibility. In fact, the responsibility to show personal leadership has to come before one can earn the higher honour. He wants the prize, but has been unwilling to pay the price.
The surprising thing was that when Viru got runs in 50-over cricket, India often lost. For one thing, he seemed more concerned with his strike rate than the bigger picture. He would play shots from the first ball and not stop until he got out, which was often just when the team needed him to go on to a big score.
Usually, if he got a start, he would get away to such a flyer it would get everyone at the ground excited, including his team-mates who would then think that they should score 300 plus. Once Virender got out, the good start was often squandered by the loss of multiple wickets as others tried to maintain the frenetic run-rate and generally the game would slip away. Seven years on, nothing much has changed. He has worked on his fitness and appears to be in better condition, but on the evidence of his training in Australia early this year he still practises the way he has always done and the results, unsurprisingly, are similar.
It is unlikely that Sehwag will ever change. It is probably too late now. But, if Dhoni and the selectors have decided that enough is enough and that they have a better chance of winning the World Twenty20 without him, I reckon the Australian bowlers will breathe a little easier on Friday.
Keywords: Twenty20 World Cup, Virender Sehwag
Greg's so called love virtually ended Viru's career when he was part time coach ( & part time politician). He seems to be making one last attempt to complete his unfinished job. It is sad that HINDU should have lent its valuable pages for this malicious article
Mr. Chappell,
I find this absolutely distasteful at best ( and illegal at worst) that you choose to
publicly disclose events that are supposed to be confidential between the coach and
the player.
Write what you may, please feel free to impart your free advice elsewhere - If you are
indeed so concerned as you claim, you had the opportunity to take appropriate
steps. Remember WC07 ? Take a good hard look at what Mr. Kirsten did to turn the
team around to win the very next WC. As for Sehwag, he is experienced enough to
know what works for him and what doesn't. For all your talk, I don't recall you
getting a couple of triple hundreds in tests. And as for your comment about his ODI
career, he has 5 times as many hundreds as you, and more runs than you in both
forms of the game. :-)
So mate, warm regards and hope have a happy time with eating your humble pie.
Attitude matters the most. Greg, you saw it up close. The difference is
Indians take themselves seriously. Australians take their work
seriously. Everybody in India has a King size ego. You have to handle
them with kid gloves. Too bad you didn’t have experience teaching in
Kindergarten. You are an excellent coach but “Hum Nahi Sudhrenge!” (we
will not improve)
This is the best article I have read recently. I completely agree with Greg as he was brave enough to report the lackadaisical attitude of Viru. Thank you very much The Hindu for publishing such a informative article. I expect more such news from you.
Mr. Chappell,
We all know your trick of creating sensations and making some cheap money in the process. To keep you in headlines you just pick an Indian player and start making accusations. We have seen that every now and then. Before talking about the Indian players just ask this to yourself; Are you a good coach??? Did you ever work hard to become one? What you have achieved as an Indian head coach other than bringing ‘team India’ to debacle from its pinnacle. Can you name one Indian player that you have never made flagrant accusation? If you can’t find just one good player (without any but’s) then it is YOU the culprit. History proved you are THE dirty Aus captain and worst Indian coach. But you are very good at one thing, you know how to hit the headlines and make dirty money. Keep it up.
Meditatively written prose! Virender Sehwang is what sports is. Cricket is not a factory for him to get an ISI mark. Cricket is an 'exciting sports' for Sehwag, who started playing cricket in streets in his childhood. He had no hope of playing cricket as a professional cricketer. His father was against him playing. God knows how many times he was beaten up by his dad for playing cricket. Sports in the eyes of average parents in India is a waste of time. Cricket is a science for Greg Chappell. Sehwang too may become a cricket scientist and cricket philosopher someday after retirement and suggest some lessons to future players, feel disappointed, etc., That is how everyone release their hard breaths.
Mr. Greg Chappel may appear to be very harsh but he has described the attitude of Virender Sehwag in the right words. Sehwag has time and again thrown his wicket in a very reckless manner and only justification for such harakiri is the feeling that ‘he is like that only’. Sehwag should be given to bat the way he bats but his place in the team should be decided on basis of his current performance and not his destructive ability to hit all bowlers at his will or on basis of past performance.
You could not have timed this article at a better time Greg. Ahead of a crucuial Ind-Aus clash in the Super 8. See this article as more an attempt to demoralize and demotivate. Not that it will make an impact on Viru if he is what he is as mentioned by you in the article. Its a known fact that Indian cricket had one of its worst phase under your coaching tenure. Many coaches have come and gone after that and none had problems as much as you had. So please leave Indian cricket and its cricketers to their current coaches and captain. Least we can expect from a respected veteran like you Greg.
this is the First time, i completely agree wih chappell
Unfortunately, what Mr. Chappel has pointed out is quite true. He has a
knack of loosing his wicket and this really affects the team as a whole.
He is indeed a gifted player and he must make it a point to score
heavily for the sake of the team.
Mr Greg Chappel! Alas what a great looser.
Please focus on Australian Team and leave Indian team to us. It was the
darkest phase in Indian Cricket when you were the coach.
i love viru for what he can ....but hate him when he doesn't.
Sir, you are right on the mark with your criticism but I feel your words are too harsh and you are unwilling to acknowledge the fact that people like Viru approach their game with an alternative technique. Well he is definitely not the right candidate to lead any team and his techniques are best suited to him only but a player like him is needed to build a good team, who can instigate fear in the opposition with his magnificent stroke play. No matter how fast you bowl you know you have a very less margin of error. The constant fear of being driven or cut hard by him is always in back of your mind. That’s the reason bowlers shout in excitement when they get Viru. That shout is more of a relief than celebration. I am saddened to see him not in starting 11 but unpredictable is the last name of Viru. I am sure he will bounce back.
This is the naked truth told very bluntly by the experianced person. If taken positively, this will make wonders.But unfortunately, nobody likes the naked truth.People prefer sugar coated poison and finally perish.
Dhoni wants to win t20 world cup without sehwag's help. I doubt india
can win anything without sehwag's help. India winningw orld cup was
fluke. Simple reason is opposition team can plan and attack other
batsman. Very difficult to attack sehwag unless he makes mistake. And he
makes more mistake than any batsman in the world. But at times his
brains works and he control himself until 30 runs Then all damn break
out. He is incredible batsman but he never played for country , he
played for crowd. He is spectators dream. 100% bonafide entertainer.
Viru has always lived by the sword and also died by it!
Nice one CHAPPELL. In General I do not like Ian's( I would say hate)
articles about Indian Players. But Shewag needs to read this one.
Dhoni, make shewag read this one, if he is in playing 11. I would open
with Gambhir and Rohit. Kohli and Raina should come in depending on
who gets out to keep left/right going. They 4 should be playing most
of the balls. All rounders (Dhoni at 5 and Yuvi/Shewag/Tiwary at 6,
Irfan at 7), Ashwin at 8, Harbajan/Chawla at 9, Zaheer at 10 and
Balaji/Dinda at 11. The only issue/consideration is that Shewag is
(only) best in sub continent pitches. He might click, if there is a
place to take risk
Thanks for publishing such a good article, Hindu. Especially this comment came from a man who know what's happening in the player's room. Thanks to Greg for finding time to write about his reflection on Indian players. I do many time felt that most players simply threw away their wickets. They fail to see the bigger picture. What all matters to them was HIT as hard as possible then get out;(
On a personal note I noticed that in India we never taught kids the value of hard work and discipline;(. After living so long in Western countries, I realized that. We should teach our kids that to achieve a goal there is no secret EXCEPT hard work and discipline
Once again Thank you, Hindu
Warm wishes
Vijay
Main thrust of article is to throw a spanner in the works. Confuse
selection. Shewag should be in. The three spinners and Pathan get the
nod. We should go in with spin - as the games played on the same ground favour spin.
Greg, with all due respect, an article like this shows your immaturity in handling players. Not all players are sincere and hardworking, infact many found out that they dont have to be. A good coach knows the skill of getting the best of every player irrespective of his traits. Please stop making sensationalist claims. With Dravid and Laxman gone, I hope Duncan makes Viru a good slip fielder atleast to prove your claims false. Again, here is a man who complains about every Indian cricketer given a chance....
While I may have the utmost respect to an international cricketer, captain, coach, Mr. Chappell but this call is divisive and old school at the very least. Sehwag is Srikanth of the decade, a bit bolder as newer models tend to be. Dhoni is accommodative of this fact that Sehwag is "expressive" and would like to keep it that way. But Thanks, right before the Pakistan game, you woke up a sleeping giant!
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