India team feted like Beatles: Greg Chappell

Former India coach Greg Chappell said being with the star-studded team was like traveling with the Beatles, the famous English band that rocked the ’60s. “It was remarkable the way they were feted around the country wherever they went. Big crowds gathered at airports. The whole airport would come to a standstill,” Chappell who coached India between 2005 and 2007 told espncricinfo.com.

Chappell’s tenure was mired in controversy and much has been said about his run-ins with then skipper Saurav Ganguly. Chappell said India job was “perhaps a little bit more complicated than anyone could have imagined”. “There were so many layers to life in India, let alone cricket. That was pretty hard to expect anyone to master, particularly an outsider,” he said.

Chappell said it was not easy to be an Indian cricketer. “To see it from the inside and to understand some of the pressures on the players. It wasn’t an easy thing to be an Indian cricketer, especially a renowned Indian cricketer. The expectations, the interruptions to their day-to-day lives, and the restrictions on their ability to move freely — I marvelled at the way they managed to absorb all of that and just get on with it,” he added.

The Australian had no qualms in admitting that the team he coached had more depth in talent. “There was a lot of talent in the teams we played against, in the top half a dozen players, but then it dropped away a bit. More from an experience and a belief point of view rather than a lack of talent. To get a chance to coach India was a great honour,” he said.

“The Indian teams that I coached, on paper, had one of the best batting line-ups that any Test team could boast. Not many that outshone it as far as talent was concerned. The depth of talent in that group was extraordinary. I don’t know that they got the best out of the group that they had. Other teams probably got more out of the talent they had.

“There are a number of reasons for that. Partly because they didn’t have the bowling attack to make the most of that batting line-up. Away from India it didn’t do as well as it probably should have done,” he added.