In defence of Mr Wright

Book Review

When I picked up this book to read, I wondered if I would be able to forgive John Wright for all the things he had reportedly done by writing this book: badmouthed our cricket system, criticised Sourav Ganguly, leaked out sensitive dressing room goings-on, and so on.

I wanted to forgive Wright because he joined the team when it was in disarray, under an untested captain and dogged by the monster of match-fixing. And it was during his tenure that the Indian team really started doing well overseas.

By the time I finished reading Indian Summers, the only emotion I had was gratitude for the country's first foreign cricket coach. Considering the way the New Zealander embraced India and the passion he felt for Indian cricket, though, it feels a trifle unfair to label him a "foreigner".

In this book, peppered with notings from the diary he kept through the years, Wright presents a view of Indian cricket that only someone not used to India and yet committed to its cricket could present, perhaps.

Every page of the book stands out for its rasping wit "" remarkable, considering how the country kept presenting the man with little surprises, and shocks, at every turn ""and anecdotes.

The first night he landed in Chennai for an interview with Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2000""current coach Greg Chappell was also in the fray""Wright switched on the television in his hotel room only to find Jaywant Lele, secretary to the board at that time, emphasising that there was no plan to appoint a foreigner as the coach for the Indian team.

Things got only slightly more organised from then on. He was shocked"" legitimately "" to discover that the team's practice session began with about an hour devoted to tea and biscuits in lounge chairs. He was as stunned to see players' fingers being taped to protect them from the impact of the thudding ball.

The selection shenanigans came next. Wright has been widely criticised, mainly by former selectors, for this part, even called a mercenary who made his money on the stint and then wanted to make more by writing rubbish.

Well, you cannot dispute facts, can you? In his five seasons, Wright worked with 14 selectors and four chairmen.

The zonal system of selection has been dealt with at length in the book and blamed for much that is wrong with Indian cricket.

Now, it is all right to fume over a foreigner's criticising our system. But, anyone even loosely familiar with India's cricket system knows Wright is spot on. As he is while talking about the invasion of players' privacy and the petty show of influence by bureaucrats, policemen, businessmen and politicians.

Wright's account is remarkably balanced. It comes from a man willing to make room for doubt, counter-argument and the possibility that he could be wrong.

He says there were "sound arguments" for a change of leadership towards the end of his stint""precisely what every cricket writer outside West Bengal must have written at that time. But he follows it up by saying that Ganguly too may have favoured a change of coach.

Wright did grab Sehwag's collar after a characteristically careless-looking dismissal. It is what many of us would probably do, given a chance. Wright did it because he could.

Throughout the book, you cannot help feeling that it has been written by a man in debt. Not because of the money he was paid""rumour has it that he was preferred to Chappell because the Australian came with a much higher price tag""or because he was jobless at the time BCCI roped him in.

Wright appears to be under the debt of the millions of cricket lovers in the country. Every encounter with them left him with just one thought: this country ought to have the cricket team it deserved.

It is touching to read what Wright expects of Ganguly: "I hope when Sourav looks back on our partnership, he feels he had the freedom to captain the team his way."

Wright recounts being disconcerted at his first television interview by Ian Chappell. When Wright gave the usual""that it was an honur and privilege to be the Indian coach""Chappell, refusing to take the sentiments at face value, shot back: "Why?"

Whatever, Coach! It was a privilege to have you coach the team.

INDIAN SUMMERS

John Wright, with Sharda Ugra and
Paul Thomas
Penguin
Price: Rs 495; Pages: 243