If stranded on a deserted island, Greg Chappell had once said, he would like to take books on yoga and meditation and practise both. “I would need something to keep both mind and body healthy and I have not found anything better than these two activities,” Chappell had said.

It’s anybody’s guess if the charismatic coach of the Indian team ? who should know what keeps the body ticking ? is indeed meditating quietly in his Bangalore hotel room. But the fitness expert and former international cricketer certainly needs it in a liberal dose to keep his bearings intact after his much-publicised spat with skipper Sourav Ganguly.

But then Gregory Stephen Chappell has never been afraid of speaking his mind or venting his emotions even at the risk of ruffling a few feathers. While at the pinnacle of his cricketing career, he irked the Australian cricket establishment by joining elder brother Ian to play in the Packer Series, something that could have jeopardised his professional future. It didn’t, for he was too good to be ignored. But, ever since, he has played by his own rules.

That “I do what I feel is right” attitude hasn’t worn off. When the press meet on the eve of the Indian team’s departure to Zimbabwe was postponed, Chappell blew his top. He was peeved with the arrangements and let it be known. Earlier, he had suggested to the BCCI that a few senior players be dropped. The officials chose to play safe by ignoring his advice.

But the former Aussie great who scored 24 centuries in a career spanning 14 years and 87 Tests is obviously not the sort who would compromise easily. After all, Greg’s links with cricket go back two generations. His father was a great cricket enthusiast, but his grandfather, Vic Richardson, played for Australia. While Greg played matches for his school, his grandfather would park his car down the road and watch him from behind a tree.

Chappell, who started playing cricket in his backyard, burst on to the international scene when he was 22 with a ton in a debut that had a stamp of class. He won 21 of his 48 Tests as captain and lost only 13. His feat of scoring centuries in each innings of his captaincy debut remains unequalled.

Wisden describes him as an “upright and unbending individual with a touch of the tin soldier about his bearing”. Greg Chappell, it says, was the “outstanding” Australian batsman of his generation. “Though he had an appetite for big scores, it was his calm brow and courtly manner that bowlers found just as disheartening”, it goes on to add.

What it doesn’t say is that he was a temperamental genius, aggressive and headstrong. But over the years he changed himself into a suave,well-dressed and relatively mild-mannered gentleman ? most believed under the influence of his wife Judy.

Today, as the Indian coach, he has a single-point agenda ? winning. “He is a legend, too high profile to be just working from behind the scenes. He is going to play an active part in everything that concerns the Indian team,” says former India player Deep Dasgupta,who believes Chappell has little idea of how things work in India. “The culture and attitudes are different here. I am sure he is going to adapt. He is a professional and his technical acumen is beyond question,” he says.

Unlike his genial predecessor John Wright, who would go to any length to balance the interests of players and the board, Chappell is a man in a hurry. Understandably so, as the dashing middle-order batsman tasted just moderate success in his post-retirement career. Unlike Ian, he wasn’t a star commentator ? though he did make his name as a writer of fitness and lifestyle books. As the coach of South Australia, he didn’t share a very cordial relationship with his players and failed to win the domestic championship.

Even during his career, more than the silken grace of his strokes and his leadership skills, it’s the one black spot in his career that gets talked about. In a triangular series final against New Zealand at Melbourne, he asked younger brother Trevor Chappell to bowl underarm in order to prevent the last batsman from hitting a six. Australia won the match but Chappell was branded a villain for bending the rules of the gentleman’s game.

After the match, Chappell said he regretted his action and years later confessed that he was “mentally unfit” that night. “I was mentally wrung out, I was physically wrung out, and I was fed up with the whole system, things that seemed to be just closing in on us, and I suppose it was a cry for help,” he admitted.

Ironically, he now sees Sourav Ganguly in a similar predicament and wants him to quit. Though he has his share of supporters in this endeavour, criticism has also been mounting against him. “Chappell shouldn’t behave like a headmaster and must limit his role to that of a coach. His technical inputs are invaluable though,” says former national selector Sambaran Banerjee. But even though the first round in the mother-of-all spats hasn’t quite been his, Chappell’s tenure is far from over. The mercurial man from Adelaide is known to save the best for the last. After all, he is the only captain ? so far ? to have signed off his international career with a hundred.

But Chappell has to put in his best. For, just like the Prince of Calcutta is on a now-or-never turn, this could be the 57-year-old Australian’s last chance to redeem himself.