As the man who famously tapped the Indian aristocrat Sourav Ganguly on the shoulder, Greg Chappell should have no qualms about doing the same to Ricky Ponting.
Chairman of selectors or not, Chappell in his new role will become the dominant voice in choosing the Australian cricket team.
In time he will be responsible for managing the retirement of Ponting, the best batsman to emerge in this country since Chappell left the stage in 1984.
Under the job description of Cricket Australia’s national talent manager and first fulltime selector, 62-year-old Chappell will also be the face of selection decisions, charged with explaining an often thankless job to the public.
It is a position he will be far more comfortable in than Andrew Hilditch, the taciturn and perennially elusive chairman who has held the post since 2006.
Hilditch will remain until his contract expires next year.
But it is hard to imagine him, Jamie Cox, David Boon or Merv Hughes actively contradicting the judgment of Chappell, whose lofty status was left unsullied by underwhelming stints as coach of South Australia and India.
Chappell had a long roll of potential referees to etch into his CV for the role of fulltime selector.
Australian team coach Tim Nielsen would have vouched for Chappell’s mentoring, former selection chairman Lawrie Sawle for his acumen and Ian Healy for a knack of lateral thinking about the future.
Ganguly might not have offered many kind words for Chappell as India’s national coach, but the former Australian captain would otherwise have had little trouble winning over his interviewer.
Confident presentation is a strength of Chappell’s, and one which will be necessary here.
His perceived weaknesses as a coach included an inability to speak on the level with players less talented than he was, but this is not something a selector must reckon with.
Earlier this year, Chappell knocked back an offer to coach Pakistan, saying he would prefer not to return to the draining extremes of his time in India between 2005 and 2007.
However he is expected to maintain close ties with Nielsen, who honed his coaching style and ethos under Chappell at the Redbacks a decade ago and on Tuesday was signed to a new contract until after the 2013 Ashes series.
Chappell and Nielsen have caught up regularly for a meal and a chat ever since that time, the younger man even challenging Chappell to name a 1980s Australian Twenty20 squad that featured David Hookes and Kim Hughes, among others.
Australia’s previous Test tour of India in 2008 coincided with Chappell’s appointment to his role with the Centre of Excellence, and the first week of the trip was spent at the Rajasthan cricket academy in Jaipur, where Chappell had also worked.
That week ensured the Australian side was settled and well prepared for their task, but it is arguable that a panel including Chappell would have selected a squad rather different from the muddled group that lumbered to a 2-0 series defeat.
Chappell’s most significant moments since his retirement from international cricket arguably arrived as a selector in the years immediately after.
Under chairman Sawle, Chappell played his part in helping to rebuild an Australian side weakened by the retirements of he, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh in the same summer, then gutted by the South African rebel tours.
The regeneration featured the identification of players like Chappell’s fellow panelists Boon and Hughes, while the choice of Healy as wicketkeeper was a lateral selection Chappell played a key part in facilitating.
In 1988 Healy was merely the understudy to Queensland’s No. 1 stumper Peter Anderson, but had impressed Chappell with his concentration and spunky batting in a handful of appearances.
After Chappell relayed his observations to the panel, Healy was duly picked for the 1988 tour of Pakistan ahead of the wild West Australian Tim Zoehrer and 1987 World Cup `keeper Greg Dyer.
Healy made a nervy start before becoming a key member of the team that rose to become the best in the world.
By that time Chappell had exited his roles as a selector and Australian Cricket Board member, preferring to pursue business interests and television commentary.
But he would remain close to the national game, moonlighting as Australia A coach in 1994-95 before taking up with SA in 1998.
While working at Adelaide Oval Chappell completed a personal transition from the beer and meat pie culture of his contemporaries to an iconoclastic vegan lifestyle.
Chappell and his wife Judy made the change in the face of some dismay from friends and family.
This fortitude, as much as the bold decision to dump Ganguly as Indian captain, shows the willingness to make a tough call.
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