"It was obvious from the beginning of the tour that the Indians weren't interested in Check cricket," Chappell said. "After the Australians showed that they were going to be a formidable foe, I was disappointed with the Indians. & having worked with lots of of them & having been in the dressing room with them, Check cricket was hard for most of them. They can only make lots of money playing 20-over cricket. Fifty-over cricket they can kind of put up with.
"Test cricket for lots of, not only India, lots of subcontinent teams, I think it is hard. & the challenge for Check cricket is, without the kind of grounding that they [Australians] had as children, Check cricket is hard. It is demanding mentally, physically & emotionally."
Malcolm Knox, Chappell's co-writer, then brought the discussion back to the book, & pointed out how Chappell had marked out Virender Sehwag's fitness & attitude & Zaheer Khan's fitness as key issues for India. "You can throw in attitude for Zaheer as well," Chappell interjected.
Chappell then spoke about what was wrong with the Indian culture. "The culture is different, it is not a team culture," Chappell said. "They lack leaders in the team because they are not trained to be leaders. From an early age, their parents make all the decisions, their schoolteachers make their decisions, their cricket coaches make the decisions.
"The culture of India is such that, in case you put your head above the parapet someone will shoot it. Knock your head off. So they learn to keep their head down & not take responsibility. The Poms (British) taught them well to keep their head down. For if someone was deemed to be responsible, they'd get punished. So the Indians have learned to keep away from responsibility. So before taking responsibility for any decisions, they prefer not to."