Greg - Wright or Wrong?

With so many of the small time cricketers and journalists suddenly voicing their ideas and opinions against the strategies and experiments of Greg Chappell, we tend to get the feeling that the former Aussie great has not yet had enough success to turn public opinion in his favor.

After all, success is the sole judge of right and wrong - at least when it comes to judging the methods.

However, proverbs and wisdom gathered through ages tend to lose weight and value when pitted against the current day yellow journalism and the techno gizmo armed modern man who has probably lost his ability to think for himself.

Let us use the available statistics to judge the effectiveness of Greg Chappell. We will not be using any esoteric statistical method like we have done earlier to measure consistency and match winning capability. We will just go by the available results.

And we will compare Greg with John Wright, who teamed up with Sourav Ganguly to become a universally accepted coach-captain success story.

Here are the facts.

In test cricket, India has undergone a huge transformation since Tendulkar entered the scene. No matter how much we debate over his matchwinning abilities, it is not for nothing that India's success rate has gone up by leaps and bounds during his playing days. India has won more matches in his 17 year career than in the 57 years prior to his debut.

Overall, India has a success ratio of 0.69, having won 89 and lost 129 of the 401 tests played.
Under John Wright's coaching, it is a very creditable 1.46, with India winning 19 and losing 13 of the 47 tests.
Under the controversial Greg Chappell, the ratio now stands at a staggering 3.5, with India winning 7 and losing just 2 of the 16 tests.

Taking the minnows out of the equation for better comparisons, Wright has coached India to 12 wins and 12 losses in 38 tests which did not feature Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. Success ratio a neutral 1.00
Greg, on the other hand has won 5 and lost 2 of the 14 actual tests (I don't quite consider Zim and Bang to be actual test teams). His success ratio is 2.5.

I would say that is what is known as taking the team to the next level - from okay/good to brilliant.



The records of the two coaches are not so different in the ODIs. However, with the recent slump in the ODI games that India witnessed, the common man on the street will be happy with the opinion of the plummeting graph during the coaching of the Aussie professional, and ask cheeky, yet uninformed questions about the next level. A fact that has been harped on by the regional vernaculars, especially in the Eastern part of India, playing on the mass uproar at the highly justifiable exclusion of Sourav Ganguly on performance grounds.

However, the 'immensely successful' Wright managed a decent 78 wins and 67 losses in 151 ODIs, with a success ratio of 0.54.
Greg Chappell does not fare much different. He has 26 wins and 23 losses in 51 ODIs to have a success ratio of 0.53.
Here too, Chappell has not had too many matches against teams like Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Namibia and Holland.

The bottomline is that Greg Chappell has been the most successful coach of India till date. Whatever be the media impressions, he has raised the team to the much hyped next level by being instrumental in series win in WI and an unprecedented test win in SA - apart from the record breaking sequence of successful chases.

I hope, with a more determined, performing and sobered down Ganguly back in the side, the media attention will be more on results and the discoloring tint of yellow journalism will take a backseat to let the achievements of the coach get due credit.