Published: May 20, 2021, 11:10 AM (IST)
Edited: May 20, 2021, 12:12 PM (IST)
New Delhi: Recalling his stint with the Indian cricket team as the head coach, former Australia captain Greg Chappell once again created a controversy by saying that the then Indian captain Sourav Ganguly was only interested in staying as the captain and was not concerned about improving his own performance. Stating his two years in India as challenging, Chappell said that the expectations were ridiculous.
“The two years in India were challenging on every front. The expectations were ridiculous. Some of the issues were around Sourav being captain. He didn’t particularly want to work hard. He didn’t want to improve his cricket. He just wanted to be in the team as captain, so that he could control things,” Chappell said while speaking on the Cricket Life Stories podcast.
But Chappell did concede to the fact that he got the job because of Ganguly in the first place when things were fine between them.
“Ganguly was the one who approached me about coaching India. I had other approaches but I decided that since John Buchanan was coaching Australia… I would love to coach the most populous, fanatical cricket country in the world, and that opportunity came about because Sourav, who was the captain, made sure that I did,” said Chappell.
The former Australian captain then went on to speak about the changes he wanted to bring in the Indian team and how he and former India captain Rahul Dravid who replaced Ganguly after he was sacked went about their job that culminated into a very successful partnership in the next year or so.
“Dravid was really invested in India becoming the best team in the world. Sadly not everyone in the team had the same feeling. They would rather concentrate on being in the team. There was some resistance from some of the senior players because some of them were coming to the end of their careers. When Sourav got dropped from the team, we had a lot of attention from the players, because they realized if he can go, anyone can go,” added Chappell.
“We had a great 12 months, but then the resistance got too much, Ganguly came back into the team. The message from the players was loud and clear – ‘We don’t want change.’ Even though the board offered me a new contract, I decided that I did not need that kind of stress,” Chappell further went on to add.
