36 players, 6 hats and one shared goal

One of 20 master-trainers of the method and the only one in India, Subramaniam described the De Bono method as ‘tools for thinking’. ‘‘You have tools for cutting vegetables, you have tools for communicating but we don’t have tools for thinking. If we can also use tools for thinking, the output of that thinking will be elegant and very organised,’’ he said.

He explained De Bono’s famous ‘six hats’ theory. ‘‘If I want to think about the microphone, I use a white hat and when I put a white hat I only think about the information I have on the microphone. Then I put on a yellow hat and only think about the benefits about the microphone. Then I put on a black hat and think only about the problems connected with the microphone. And when I put on a green hat I try to solve the problems.’’

And in a meeting where everybody would wear the same hat, there wouldn’t be arguments; differences in opinion and meetings wouldn’t take long to sort out.

Chappell explained how he’d adapt it to cricket. ‘‘We can use these tools in team meetings, in preparing and planning for games and series, looking at the opposition and looking at ourselves and seeing at how we may be able to improve ourselves.

‘‘As a coach, it will help me improve in planning and preparing the practice sessions and being able to vary the things that we do in practise sessions. It was a fruitful session and the interaction with the players was good.’’

‘‘I felt it was a tool that can add value to what we were doing’’, PTI quoted Chappell as saying. ‘‘If we have to take this team to another level and fulfill its potential, I think we need to look at a whole range of issues differently from the way we would normally look at them.’’

But he said the system depended on communication by all players, pointing out that the process would break down if only the coach or captain gave inputs.

And that factor has got at least one team member excited. ‘‘Everyone thinks in a different way and yet each opinion counts in a team’’, Ajit Agarkar told this paper. ‘‘It gets the best out of the lot. They could be doubts, strengths or weaknesses but when 20 minds think together it is a positive step.’’

Wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Kaarthick agreed with him. ‘‘It is interesting and a totally new concept to us. Basically, everybody had a lot of fun and a lot of questions were asked in the session. It is difficult to put into use straightaway but, as we practice, it’ll become easier.’’

Meanwhile

• Sourav Ganguly, Dinesh Mongia, Harbhajan Singh, VVS Laxman and Murali Kartik, who had missed the physical fitness and conditioning camp, joined the camp.

• Sachin Tendulkar also arrived for interactions with Chappell and physio John Gloster.

• Ian Frazer, former Victoria left-handed batsman joined the camp yesterday to bring his experience in the area of sports science and biomechanics.