‘Greg was always in a no-win situation with India coach job’

Trevor Chappell 72 has come a long way since he was ordered to bowl an underarm delivery by his brother Greg to prevent New Zealandrsquos Brian McKechnie from hitting a six that would tie a triangular series game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 198081He became a Test player for the 1981 Ashes series 1983 World Cup centurion fielding coach of Sri Lanka head coach of Bangladesh and coach of the Singapore national team The youngest of the Chappell brothers is on a brief visit to the city and is happy to soak in Mumbairsquos cricketing ecosystem and visit somefascinating placesEdited excerpts from an interviewWhat brings you to MumbaiI havenrsquot been to India that much I have been to the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai with Greg Chappell and Dennis Lillee for a brief period and spent a few days with the Singapore team that I was coaching in Bangalore But itrsquos my first timein MumbaiGreg Chappell PicAFPDid you know Ian played at this ground Brabourne StadiumYes I do remember reading or maybe listening to the radio as a teenager about the riot that happened herein the 196970 India v Australia TestGreg had a stint here as coach of India It was not a very happy one What did you make of itHaving coached Bangladesh as an overseas head coach I knew it was always difficult I know there are different groups that push their favourite sons so to speak So there is going to be some resentment in certain areas mdash to any coach but probably particularly towards an overseas coach It was always going to be a difficult job for Greg And from my point of view I couldnrsquot see why he wanted to do it because I knew how difficult it was going to be No matter how well you do there will be some people who love you and a lot of others who wouldnrsquot I was surprised Greg took it up Having that Bangladesh experience at a much lower level I thought it was going to be nowin situation for Greg Hersquos a perfectionist He wants people to do things and he wants it done He is not going to accept half measures He wants it done like he would like to do it India has done very well actually and I think Greg probably contributed quite a lot to Indian cricketTrevor Chappell indicates that he is the third Chappell brother to play for Australia in 1980 PicGetty ImagesHow much do you remember of your 110 against India in Trent Bridge during the 1983 World CupA little It was obviously a big moment for me I hadnrsquot played the first two games Australia played Zimbabwe and lost Then we lost to the West Indies at Leeds where Graeme Wood got injured So Graeme was out of the game against India at Nottingham and I got put in to open with Kepler Wessels and scoreda hundredAlso ReadInform Retegui out of Italyrsquos clash v GermanyYou also played the next game against India at Chelmsford where Australia lost Did you see glimpses of Indiarsquos potential thereNot really Their bowling was steady with Kapil Dev leading the attack but Mohinder Amarnath Roger Binny had no outright pace Everybody thought West Indies were going to win it the third time in a row but India beat them in their opener and thenthe finalTrevor Chappell bowls an underarm delivery to New Zealandrsquos Brian McKechnie in a 198081 World Series Cup game at Melbourne on February 1 1981 PicGetty ImagesIndia played very well When your approach is sort of casual the pressure is on and it is pretty hard to get back in the gameWe may have beaten India at Trent Bridge but then they outplayed us at Chelmsford And whoever won that game was going to qualify for that second spot in the group So it was an important game for Australia and India at that point I donrsquot remember the scores but I think India won fairly easilyDid you feel victimised in terms of selection at any time because you were a Chappell Your two elder brothers spoke their mindhellipOnly once I had shifted to Western Australia WA from South Australia SA WA won the Sheffield Shield by a country mile big mile in 197677 Rod Marsh Dennis Lillee Bruce Laird and Robbie Langer signed World Series Cricket WSC so WA were down by four to five players and I didnrsquot get picked for WA Dennis said to me lsquobad luck about not getting picked but I think something better might be on the horizonrsquo I didnrsquot know what he meant but a few days later but when WSC needed more Australian players for the Country teams they signed 1617 players and I was one of those So getting back to the original question I reckon because Ian and Greg had joined WSC they WA said we are not having him me for their 197778 season You are the first person I have mentioned this to never said it before I canrsquot prove it and none of those selectors are living but thatrsquos what I felt about leaving me out of Sheffield Shield cricketAre you still haunted by the underarm incidentNo It still comes up regularly I donrsquot know if I was ever haunted by it but certainly not now It is something I got along withYou said in a documentary that when you call someone and introduce yourself the person at the other end asks if you are the same Trevor Chappell of the underarm controversy and you say yes yesYes that sort of happens quite a lot Recently I met some guys on my trip to Kerala and they asked me my name and then started talking about cricket They didnrsquot mention the underarm I was relieved it was goodItrsquos funny I was Sri Lankarsquos fielding coach for the 1999 World Cup in England We were playing a practice game at Taunton and nobody at that stage had mentioned the underarm but Murali Muttiah Muralitharan asked me about it Obviously all the other players were keen to find out I donrsquot mind talking about it but itrsquos hard to come up with something new laughsHow was your experience with Sri LankaIt was great They are very easy very athletic Fielding practice mustnrsquot be boring and if you make it interesting they start enjoying it They are very easy to coach so it was a breeze I thoughtSri Lanka beating world champions Australia in that 1999 Aiwa Cup final in Colombo must have been satisfyinghellipYes it wasWhat do you make of todayrsquos fielding standardsI am not a big fan of T20 cricket but the fielding is unbelievablehellip some of the catches especially on the boundary are great You canrsquot be a bad fielder in T20 cricket canrsquot hide anyoneModern coaching methods have had a role to play toohellipYes we couldnrsquot do it because there was a fencehellip you couldnrsquot sort of jump over the fence Now with a rope you can knock the ball back to somebody else and come back in But they obviously practise a lot to do it The fielding in the womenrsquos game is extraordinary as well T20 cricket has helped fielding I donrsquot think itrsquos helped much else