Ian Chappell sparks captaincy debate

With his brother Greg in a high-profile leadership controversy with Sourav Ganguly, Ian Chappell has joined him in the limelight by saying Australia picked the wrong captain when Steve Waugh was appointed in 1999. Chappell, who is launching a book this week, said Cricket Australia was "too frightened" to pick Shane Warne when Mark Taylor stood down, but it was too late to fix the mistake.

"Warney would have been one of Test cricket's exciting captains as well as being a very good one," Chappell told The Courier-Mail. "Administrators were too frightened to go with him and it's a loss."

Warne's off-field controversy, including bookie and sex scandals, effectively ruled him out of the job, although he was returning from a career-threatening shoulder injury when Taylor retired after the 1998-99 Ashes series. On Waugh's first assignment to the West Indies Warne was dropped for the final Test because of poor form and considered quitting the game during the early stages of Australia's winning World Cup campaign.

Chappell, who won 15 of 30 Tests in charge, believes Ricky Ponting, the current captain, must be given some new faces so he can work on moulding his team instead of one passed on by Waugh. "He's got to take control and I think what will help him is if there were a few changes to the side," Chappell, whose book is Chappelli Speaks Out, told AAP. "Then it would be his team and not the one he inherited. But, whichever way it goes, whether he's still got the inherited team or whether he's got his own team, he's got to take control, and that's the only way he's going to succeed as captain."

Greg Chappell, the coach of India, has been under heavy scrutiny for suggesting that Ganguly should be dropped from the India Test side in Zimbabwe. Australia's squads for the Super Series Test and one-day matches are selected today.