Published: Jun 23, 2016, 11:53 AM (IST)
Edited: Jun 23, 2016, 11:53 AM (IST)
Selecting the head coach of Indian cricket team is a humungous task any day and that responsibility has been given to three of India’s greatest. Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman are the members of Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), who have been given the task.
Whenever the talks about selecting a coach for Indian team comes, the incident of Greg Chappell always comes under the light. Few term it as the biggest mistake by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The selection of Chappell as coach, back in 2005 was highly supported by the then Indian captain Ganguly. Later on, they fell apart and thus followed one of the biggest controversies in Indian cricket. Also Read: Sourav Ganguly vs Greg Chappell: The battle continues…
Recalling the same incident, Ganguly was recently quoted as saying, “I once had an opportunity to select the coach. I thought I messed it up in 2005.” However, Ranbir Singh Mahendra, who was the president of BCCI when Chappell was selected as India’s head coach has some different opinion in this matter.
Mahendra and Ganguly too share an interesting relationship and both did not see eye-to-eye when the southpaw began his career. Ganguly had even termed Mahendra as the “worst guy I have met” and called him “shame to Indian cricket”. They later patched up when Mahendra became the BCCI president in 2004. However, once again, they find themselves with differing opinions now.
As reported by mid-day, Ranbir defended BCCI’s then decision of appointing Chappell the coach of Indian side and said, “We had appointed a committee (Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and S Venkatraghavan) and all the members of the committee were unanimous on this choice. He was the best competent person at that time and his presentation impressed us all. Chappell did well till his differences with Ganguly surfaced. I was told that the team was not united, but that was only upon hearsay and the issues were sorted out thereafter.” Also Read: Get ready for the tremors! Sourav Ganguly’s autobiography coming soon
When asked about regretting that decision, Ranbir totally denied it and added, “We never felt that we made a wrong choice. We never regretted our decision. He (Chappell) was better than all those who were interviewed.”
Well, looking at the current situation of Indian cricket team, there is no point in talking about the previous mistakes but one should always learn from that. BCCI will be announcing the new head coach of Indian cricket team today and Anil Kumble and Ravi Shastri are the front-runners.
