It didn’t take much time for the cameras to turn on the returning stars, it didn’t take much time for mobile phones to start leaking confidential messages from the coach. But the real story of India’s World Cup disaster does not begin with that initial fumble against Bangladesh, or the embarrassing surrender to Sri Lanka.

By the time India reached the West Indies on March 1, the wheels had already come loose, threatening to fall off any time. And they did, within 23 days.

This paper talked to some of the main characters in this tragedy — including coach Greg Chappell, captain Rahul Dravid and at least two other senior players — before, during and immediately after India’s World Cup 2007, and it can now reveal that many in this team had little hope of succeeding in the Caribbean, and the skipper was spending a lot of his time and energy repairing a severe communications breakdown between the coach and most of the senior players.

Today, a shattered Dravid is still to decide on his future, preferring to take the call, if it does comes from the BCCI, after a few quiet days with his family. And a stoic Chappell is facing the fallout of an unnatural obsession to bring the media into the loop at every turn, despite being repeatedly cautioned by the captain over the last two years — the coach is not very hopeful of a recall, either.

What led to this sorry situation? Where did it go wrong? There are many answers, and you will find some of them in the report that Chappell will submit to the BCCI. Or, in the notes that have been diligently taken down by the coach over the last two years that will soon come together in the form of an ‘explosive’ book.

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