Sport | Cricket
Pakistan Diary: Chappell takes special care of Ganguly
The staff of the hotel I am staying in have a laid- back attitude. Room service is delivered only after an hour. The situation in the restaurant is worse. The waiter, after taking down the order, returns in half an hour to inform that my order isn't available.
- Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:32 May 3, 2009
The staff of the hotel I am staying in have a laid- back attitude. Room service is delivered only after an hour. The situation in the restaurant is worse. The waiter, after taking down the order, returns in half an hour to inform that my order isn't available.
But everything suddenly changed yesterday, thanks to the chief chef. While at breakfast yesterday, he started to chat and asked me where I was from in India.
When I told him that I was from South India, he immediately wanted to know if I was from Veerapan's state.
Despite my best efforts to convince him that I was not, he refused to listen. He introduced me to the others as the man from Veerapan's place and talked highly about the sandalwood king.
"The Indian army failed to catch Veerapan for years. He was a poor man's dacoit," he informed his colleagues. Thanks to Veerapan, he then offered me special sweets free of charge. And when I protested that I don't take sweets in the morning, he requested that I should take it just to keep him happy.
Two days later, the receptionist, who used to meet me daily also became friendly. "It is a tough life here. I hardly earn a salary of only Rs2,000 and barely get to sleep for just three hours," he revealed. I immediately decided not to bicker over their laid-back attitude. The answer was loud and clear.
Effigies of Indian coach Greg Chappell are reportedly being burnt in Kolkata. But if you were to see what happened here yesterday, they would have garlanded him instead.
Chappell was seen correcting Ganguly's drives for nearly half an hour, especially his on-drives and off-drives, and once even held his feet to position his right leg. The irony was that despite India's other opener Gautam Gambhir batting on the adjacent pitch, Chappell concentrated only on Ganguly.
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