Conventional wisdom is that Greg Chappell, master bat and former Australian captain, has applied for the job of India's national coach. That he has spoken to the powers that be in the BCCI.
Conventional wisdom is wrong -- Chappell has not applied, nor spoken to anyone with any degree of seriousness. And he will not apply, says Chappell, until he is contacted by the BCCI, and until he knows that such an application will be welcome.
"I haven't been contacted yet," Chappell told rediff.com, "And as I haven't, I would rather not comment at this stage."
The official response is perplexing -- to put it mildly. "We have not taken any steps so far," BCCI president Ranbir Singh Mahendra told rediff.com
"We are in the process of finalising the process."
Who, other than the BCCI, would be 'in the process of finalizing the process'? Even Sri Lanka, without a defined cricket hierarchy, with its administration in shambles, has managed to approach the names on its wishlist, and is proceeding with job interviews. The BCCI, meanwhile, is in the process of finalising the process.
The 'process' would begin in a week, BCCI secretary S K Nair said on April 20.
"First of all, we are planning to set up a committee which would include former Test players. The committee will be given sufficient time to choose a suitable person as the national coach, taking all aspects into account," he said.
Two weeks later, there has been no further development -- no committee, no process, no forward movement.
Around two weeks have passed since that day, but no developments have taken place yet.
The result? An Indian team that has had its most disappointing season in a long time has dispersed. Most of its members -- contracted players, remember -- are on holiday. There is no plan in place to utilise the downtime to iron out chinks in the playing armour; there is no one responsible for looking into the needs of the particular players, and working with them on eradicating their problems.
A Sourav Ganguly, an Irfan Pathan, an Ashish Nehra -- players, all, who turned in less than impressive performances during the home series against Pakistan; players who could use the downtime with profit to work on their game, are adrift because there is no coach.
All there is, is the 'putting together of a process to define the process'.
The BCCI says the new coach will 'definitely' be picked before India's next international assignment. But what is -- or should be -- the next coach's assignment?
Is it the next international fixture? Or is it getting to know the individual players during this off period, working with them on the areas that are required, devising training for each individual player so that the various components of the team are all match fit and in prime form when India takes the field next?
There are questions -- but for now, the BCCI has no answers.
(With additional inputs from Deepti Patwardhan)
