DAMBULLA, July 28: Former Australian batting great Greg Chappell begins his new innings as India coach on Saturday, only to find that he will be under as much scrutiny as his players. A coach’s stocks rise and fall with the team’s performance in cricket-crazy India. Coaching may have become a high-profile job, but it has never been cushy in India.

If great cricketers always make successful coaches, then Chappell wins convincingly in the tri-series here against compatriots Tom Moody (Sri Lanka’s coach) and Bennett King (West Indies’ coach). But this has rarely been true.

Australian coach Dav Whatmore played a significant role in Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup triumph even though he achieved limited success as a cricketer, having played just seven Tests for Australia. In contrast, Kapil Dev earned worldwide fame as an all-rounder but hardly tasted success as Indian coach during his one-year stint in 1999-2000.

As a cricketer, Chappell (7,110 runs in 87 Tests) was miles ahead of Moody, who figured in just eight Tests, and King, who never played a Test.—AFP