K and I went for dinner last night at a restaurant in the Taj hotel. We finished up quite late, around 1am, and when we went outside we discovered a large group of cops by the entrance. We figured there must be a bollywood star arriving but then looked around further and noticed another 10 cops by the street, a police van and the anti-riot water cannon truck backing into place… hmmmm what could it all mean..? We asked the concierge and found out that Greg Chappell, the coach of the Indian Cricket team, was on his way from the airport and would be staying at the hotel for a few days.. of course – one of the most hated men in India right now, something could easily erupt.
As we drove away we noticed that police were camped on every corner of the building, a total of about 50 men in all I’d say. You gotta feel a bit sorry for the man. Not only does his surname mean ’sandel’ (as in shoe, as in jandel for the kiwis out there) in hindi, he is also going to be at the bad end of a pretty harsh blame game for one of the worst performances of cricket in India’s World Cup history. I don’t feel sorry for the players – I think most of them need a shake up to realise that they are in the team to play cricket, not to sell hair products or soft drinks for big bucks – but I do feel a little sorry for Chappell.. I’m sure the Indian selection system and arrogant players didn’t help with his game plan.
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Ooo, another nice post
Can I gloat and say that I loved that Bangladesh beat the Indian team? Actually, I was just glad that we won (our team is a recognized new loser). But if you saw the match on TV (I didn’t– I actually don’t follow the game that much) you’d see one of the beautiful female commentators disparaging the BD team unprofessionally, going on to say “India’s going to show them who’s there daddy” etc. Really, cricket fever runs too high….
And I do feel sorry for the coaches, who give their best efforts, only to have the players become too full of themselves and eager to sell colas and petrol…
LOL at the mention that you made about the coach’s surname meaning ’sandel’
I agree that Mr. Greg may not have got any help from most of the “attitudinal” players and from the politicians controlling the cricket-board. And the pressure of 1 billion people on him didnt help either.
Having said that, I am sure he knew what he was getting into – including the fact that nowhere else in the world does Cricket mean so much money as it does in this country ! which is precisely why the Indian cricketers get sackloads of money to sell everything from Cars to Chywanprash !!