Good players deserve longer stint: Chappell

It was in June 2005 that Greg Chappell took over as India coach.

- Ashish Magotra

He arrived to try and revive a jaded team and ended up presiding over one of the most tumultuous eras of Indian cricket. In the two years he was in charge, the scraps with the seniors, the game of pool in Zimbabwe, the leaked email and the punch at the airport were only the tip of a never-ending barrage of stories that featured on the front pages of newspapers back then.

Chappell wanted change and he wanted it on his own terms. Had he got the seniors over to his side (as John Wright and Gary Kirsten did), he might have succeeded in giving Indian cricket a new direction. But instead, he only succeeded in pushing some youngsters into India's white-ball system and introducing the word 'process' into the Indian cricket lexicon. Rahul Dravid benefitted from it, so did Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli.

When Chappell took over, India had a bunch of ageing superstars staring at a mid-career crisis. They either needed to up their game (some eventually did) or give way to younger players. This called for tough words, and not everyone liked what was said or how it was said.