Poor Chap Chappell

Greg Chappell was slapped by an irate cricket fan in Cuttack. The reason for this unholy act was the omission of the Orissa players from the Indian squad. Actually, that’s irrelevant. What is relevant was that Greg Chappell was slapped (or was he hit on the back?) by an Indian cricket fanatic.

Did Chappell deserve a slap?

Obviously, no person in his right mind will accept anything like this. If you kept hitting coaches and selectors for the non performance of the Indian team, many of the selectors would have been dead by now. Also, Chappell does not select the players, BCCI selected Chappell; so any act of frustration should have been aimed at BCCI and the golden boys of the Indian cricket, not at a poor visionary who is decent enough to show his middle finger when things don’t go his way.

How barbaric!

Still Chappell was hit by an irate cricket fan and nobody protested strongly. Indian players didn’t say a word (they couldn’t. They were already busy being beaten by so many players and teams across the world!), BCCI said something to the effect that it will conduct enquiry into the incident. Nobody bothered to ask when that enquiry would give its report; it was business as usual for the Indian Junta and the team (or may be not, they won in Cuttack and Nagpur!)

Poor chap Chappell, who made so much noise last time around when his team was beaten in SA, lost his vocabulary when he needed it the most. Maybe he is a pure professional, or may be that fan hit him so hard that Chappell was unable to speak for a good two days.

Funnily enough, India has won two ODIs in a row after a long time just after Chappell was slapped. Was it pure co-incidence, or was it a real shot in the arm (or back) our cricketers and coach needed? I am really afraid for Chappell if the latter is proved right! He is old man and he can’t take so many blows.

Pun intended.