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Updated May 20th, 2021 at 14:21 IST

Greg Chappell makes another damning revelation about Sourav Ganguly during India stint

During Greg Chappell's tenure as India's coach, it was his working relationship with Sourav Ganguly that became a subject of negative public & media commentary.

Reported by: Jatin Malu
Greg Chappell
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The Sourav Ganguly vs Greg Chappell controversy is one of the darkest episodes of Indian cricketing history and was also one of the major topics of discussion back in the day. Greg Chappell was appointed as India’s coach in May 2005 and held the top job until the team’s early exit from the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies. During his two-year tenure, ironically, it was his working relationship with Sourav Ganguly that became a subject of negative public and media commentary.

Gregg Chappell accuses Sourav Ganguly of wanting to be captain only to control things.

Ganguly was dropped from both the ODI and Test team after returning from the Zimbabwe tour in 2005. He was also stripped off the captaincy. Ganguly's axing from the Indian team became one of the most talked-about incidents of Indian cricket. It was Chappell, who is held responsible for Sourav Ganguly's ouster.

It has been more than a decade since the Ganguly vs Chappell controversy marred Indian cricket. However, it seems as if the Australian veteran hasn't still moved on as he has revived the Ganguly vs Chappell rivalry by making some serious allegations against the BCCI President. While speaking on the Cricket Life Stories podcast, Chappell said that the two years he coached that Indian team were challenging on every front because the expectations were ridiculous.

Chappell added that some of the issues were around Sourav Ganguly being the captain. He claimed that the southpaw did not particularly want to work hard and improve on his individual game. Chappell accused Ganguly of just wanting to be in the team as captain so that he could control things.

But the 72-year old went on to acknowledge Ganguly's role in making him the coach of the Indian team. Speaking about the same, Chappell revealed that Ganguly was the one who approached him about coaching India. Chappell added that he had other approaches but he decided that since John Buchanan was coaching Australia, he would have rather coached the most populous, fanatical cricket country in the world. But Chappell further said that Rahul Dravid was really invested in India becoming the best team in the world but sadly not everyone in the team had the same feeling. 

Chappell alleged that most players only concentrated on being in the team. Chappell also revealed that there was some resistance from some of the senior players because they were coming to the end of their careers. He reiterated that when Ganguly got dropped from the team, the coaching staff had a lot of attention from the players because they realized that their places were in trouble if Ganguly was snubbed considering his stature.

The former Australian cricketer opined that he had a great 12 months but the resistance got too much after Ganguly came back into the team. Chappell stated that the message from the players was loud and clear that they do not want change. Chappell revealed that even though the BCCI offered him a new contract, he decided that he did not need that kind of stress.

SOURCE: ICC TWITTER/ PTI

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Published May 20th, 2021 at 14:21 IST

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