Ian Frazer defends Chappell's methods

Ian Frazer, the Indian team's bio-mechanist, said an opportune moment was often all it took to turn around things, where perceived bad vibes between players and the team management are concerned.

"As with anything in life, you have to appeal to the players' ambitions, goals and aims that have driven them," he told the Press Trust of India in an exclusive interview. "At times they get away from this, focussing on things that don't help their ambitions.

"It is our job to help them come back. One time chaos, and suddenly it all turns into a smooth running thing."

In the recent crisis in Indian cricket involving the coach and captain, tough training regimens and the resultant breeding of "fear and insecurity" among many players had been one of the recurrent allegations levelled against Greg Chappell and his aides.

Frazer, however, on Tuesday defended the strict fitness regime introduced by Chappell. "If they [the players] have an increase in work load, I have not heard them say. It might be more than it was in the past, but their fitness levels have gone up too.

"Greg and I set out to make them physically and mentally ready, to have a good foundation for the coming time. I think the players are extremely excited about the feedback. You can't have it both ways. When we took over, it was said they are low on fitness levels. Now when the work load is more, they say they haven't improved. I think the fitness levels have gone up from what it was before."

Frazer played for Victoria in Australian first-class cricket. After his playing days, he dabbled in business and computing technology before joining Greg Chappell to launch 'The Chappell Way' - a patented cricket training programme.

He also remarked that Indian cricket authorities have to change their attitude when it came to a player's retirement.

"It is a matter of using the resources. The establishment will have to make hard decisions because the game has gone up to another level," Frazer said.

"There is more money in it, so the players won't be moving on to other activity. It is new to cricket. Handling post-retirements will be an issue. Players need to be shown there are certain areas of life [outside cricket]."