Greg stuns Kolkata, picks boy from Ganguly’s den

Chappell visited the city, where he is still hated passionately for taking on the local icon, on a mission to spot young talents and take them to the Rajasthan Cricket Academy (RCA) in Jaipur where he is the head coach.

And as the legendary player-turned-coach went through the paces at the Ashok Malhotra Cricket Academy (AMCA) this morning, he bumped into his share of troubles. From demonstrating Sourav fans, to cribbing young cricketers complaining of getting cold-shouldered at Chappell’s selection process, he faced it all.

But yet again, the unpredictable Chappell pulled off the unthinkable. Out of the huge crowd of 487 aspiring young turks who turned up in the wee hours to showcase their skills, he picked just three, and one of them hails from Sourav’s own academy!

After a three-hour long breezy selection session at the south Kolkata coaching camp, Chappell zeroed in on 18-year-old Adil Imam, a shy Bihar-born player, who is a wicket-keeper and batsman with the Videocon School of Cricket (VSC), run by the Ganguly brothers out of Salt Lake.

Stumper Suvaankoor Das from Rourkela and leg-spinner Manas Maduli from Orissa were the other two players selected.

These three will now get to compete alongside 21 others from all over the country at the RCA’s all-India selection camp slated for later this month in Jaipur.

The best player from the 24 candidates at that camp will make it to the Jaipur IPL team.As expected, today camp threw up a host of problems and complains, with several of the discarded players grumbling about Chappell’s apparently shallow selection process. Amarjeet Singh from Rudrapur, Uttar Pradesh, who claimed he burnt nearly Rs 20,000 to get to Chappell's Kolkata leg selections, said: "The selection process made no sense.” Adding to Chappell’s woes were a sizeable bunch of Sourav supporters from Behala Chowrasta area, who showed up flashing posters calling for the Aussie coach to go back. No wonder, Chappell was constantly surrounded by a double-ring of policemen and security personnel at the AMCA, even as he sensed trouble and decided against venturing out in the open where eager media and shutterbugs waited for hours to catch up the former India coach.