Legendary Australian cricketer and former Team India head coach Greg Chappell has heaped high praise on the Indian Cricket team following its second consecutive series win Down Under.
Despite being battered, bruised, mentally scared in the wake of the shambolic 36 all-out, Team India pulled off a comeback for the ages as they turned the tables on the hosts to beat fair and square in Melbourne and the ‘Gabbatoir’ in Brisbane besides pulling off one of the greatest ever rescue acts in Sydney.
And, the fact that India did that against a full-strength Australian team in their backyard despite the absence of a number of their first-choice cricketers, makes this triumph even more special.
The likes of Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan, Shubman Gill, Navdeep Saini, and Mohammed Siraj, not only displayed their precocious talent on the world stage but also showed incredible temperament.
But, while the world might have been taken aback by India’s resilience and fortitude, Greg Chappell, who has seen Indian cricket from close quarters during his controversial stint as head coach between 2005-07, isn’t.
According to Greg Chappell, Indian cricket is reaping rewards for the millions of dollars of investment that the BCCI has done in buddling Indian cricketers.
Chappell urged his own board Cricket Australia to take a cue from their counterparts to avoid being ‘rans in no time’
“The BCCI is investing millions of dollars in budding Indian cricketers. Cricket Australia, by comparison, spends $44m dollars on the Sheffield Shield. The comparative spending gap isn’t a gulf; it is the size of the Indian Ocean,” Greg Chappell wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.
“If Cricket Australia doesn’t realize what it takes to be competitive in Test cricket and our entire cricket administration does not change its attitude on where to invest in talent, we will be also-rans in no time,” the former Australian captain added.
The champion Australian batsman also warned the cricketing world that more success is in store for the Indian team in the upcoming days and that they should get used to what they saw in Australia during the course of the past month.
“For those of you who were surprised that India could deal with all that was thrown at them in this series, and could hold their nerve and win in such courageous fashion, I say: you better get used to it. Don’t worry about India becoming the best team – they are already capable of producing the best five teams in world cricket!” Chappell added.
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