Language of Indian cricket

By John Cheeran
There is great fun in Indian cricket right now.
It is all about Greg Chappell’s right index finger. Chappell’s gesture to a few number of professional hecklers outside the Eden Gardens on the eve of the fourth one-dayer has brought unwarranted pressure on Indian coach.
As is their wont, Calcuttans have felt they have been insulted by an outsider, by an arrogant Aussie.
I completely agree that Greg Chappell is an arrogant Aussie. But there lies the point.
Chappell is no Eastern monk. His combative instincts do not allow him room to recognize that the language of cricket in India has more than one alphabet. I, however, wish Chappell makes an effort to learn it and the best opportunity for that is in the dressing room.
He is a professional coach that’s why Board of Control for Cricket in India brought him to fix Indian cricket. It’s altogether another matter that he quickly moved into fix one of the arrogant cricketers India has produced.
Janata Janardhan have their right to cheer, jeer whomever they wish so. That’s the perils and pleasures of spectator sport. And that’s what Indian skipper Rahul Dravid said. “I am not the first captain to be booed,” he said. “I have been playing for India for the last 10 years, and have received adulation from the same crowd. Sometimes, when you don't play well, you have to accept that and move on.”
Chappell, though do well to remain his natural aggressive, acerbic self, but he can learn more from Dravid. Indian captain has handled the pressure well in public and it counts. India’s obsession with the great game ensures that camera will catch every twitch of your muscles when you are out there.
But to judge Chappell on his finger revealing instinct is ridiculous. I don’t want to bring the fairness of it all argument here. What matters is winning.
If India does not win at Mumbai and square the one-day series against south Africa, that will not be the end of the road for neither for Chappell nor the experiments he has initiated.
But it will definitely give more lung power to those who have suddenly discovered their patriotism at the door steps of Eden Gardens. And in a democratic India, public pressure can always act as the match referee.