Greg Chappell uses Anil Kumble's appointment to take potshots at Indian cricket

New Delhi: Former Australia batsman Greg Chappell, who coached India for 2 years, has praised Anil Kumble’s appointment as head coach of Indian cricket team. But he also used the occasion to take potshots at other Indian cricketers, including Sourav Ganguly with whom he had a tiff resulting in the Indian captain’s sacking from the team. Calling Kumble the “heart” to Rahul Dravid’s “soul” of the Indian team and an “an inspired choice” as Team India’s coach, Chappell said the leg-spinner was unlucky not to have “selfless individuals” in the team. “If they had been blessed to have been surrounded by other selfless individuals whose only aim was to serve the team, the Indian teams in which they played would have been impossible to beat,” Chappell wrote in The Hindu. Chappell said Virat Kohli is “lucky” to have Kumble as coach and predicted it to be a “powerful partnership” that will serve India well. “Kumble has been around long enough to know that the captain is the critical component of any cricket team and that the coach’s role is to support the captain to take the load off him to allow for personal preparation time in the lead up to games, but then take a back-seat once the game begins. “In cricket it is a joint venture off the field, but on the field, the captain must be the boss and must be seen as the boss by his players or his authority will be undermined. “Kumble knows this and will work closely with and support Virat without undermining him,” he wrote. Chappell claimed that the Indian cricket could never achieve its true potential as the teams of the past tried to take “short-cuts” to success and it was this attitude that he tried to change during his stint. “Indian cricket has never reached the heights that it should because it has relied too much on natural ability and flair rather than diligent preparation. “Too often in the past, Indian teams have tried to take short-cuts rather than work hard, so any success has been fleeting,” Chappell said. He blamed Ganguly for not leading the Indian team by example. “It was something that I was appointed to change, but it needed key players, not least of all the captain, to buy-in and lead by example. Sadly, this didn’t happen until Dravid was appointed and the next 12 months brought some consistent success because of the change at the top. “This has rarely happened in India’s cricket history. Pataudi, Dravid and Kumble are the exceptions. “They tried to lead by example, but failed because they either didn’t have enough talent or didn’t get the support they needed from key individuals. “This will only be one of a number of challenges for the Kohli/Kumble partnership, but the greatest asset that Kumble has is that he has a captain who has a robust self-belief, is courageous and who will lead by example in all areas.” But the biggest challenge for Kumble, Chappell said, would be to manage the fitness of his fast bowlers. “This has been a problem for all countries in recent times as the amount of international cricket has increased and fast bowlers have fallen by the wayside at an alarming rate. “It won’t get any easier any time soon for India with the amount of Test cricket that they are committed to in the near future. “To overcome this will take a huge commitment from all levels of cricket in India and will need to be supported by the administration. “Unless fast bowlers are prepared properly for the workload demanded at the highest level before they get there, they will break down.”