Edward de Bono wants to chip in for Chappell’s team

He's the man behind the man behind Australia’s domination of the cricket world. He’d love to work with the Indian team. He’s ...

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He’s the man behind the man behind Australia’s domination of the cricket world. He’d love to work with the Indian team. He’s Edward de Bono, the creator of lateral thinking, and Greg Chappell is a big fan of his.

This may just be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

‘‘I would love to work with the Indian team,’’ de Bono told The Sunday Express in an exclusive interview (see ‘Wizard of Oz’, page 17). ‘‘They are talented individuals but the spirit of togetherness that goes beyond the individual still eludes them even though they try. They have to find that thread of thought that binds them together. Lateral thinking could be the key.’’

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Would his philosophies wash with a team coming to terms with the full import of ‘‘professionalism’’? De Bono thinks so. ‘‘India already has such interest (in cricket) that they already have devised their own ways of simplifying the game. Indian cricket is ready to accept lateral thinking because it is much more evolved than the world thinks it is.’’

De Bono (72), born in Malta and currently resident in Melbourne, has an impeccable cricket track record. He’s worked with John Buchanan, the most cerebral cricket coach today, since 2001, the first collaboration leading to Australia’s streak of 21 ODI and 17 Test wins. One concept explored was to abandon the notion that a bowling side must take wickets to win, if only to look at the game in different ways.

No wonder Buchanan once described de Bono as someone who ‘‘forces you to challenge everything’’. No less a fan is Chappell, another cerebral coach. The lateral thinking theory, he says, taught him the important lesson of broadening his perspective.

Maybe it’s not cricket alone that will bring him to India. De Bono said he’d met President Abdul Kalam and works closely with the Taj group of hotels. There may even be a longer stint here: he’s placed an advertisement in the matrimonial section of an Indian paper.

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Asked where lateral thinking had failed him, the inventor’s reply was swift: ‘‘They’ve named a planet after me (EdeBono) but it’s a pity I will never be able to visit it.’’