Suresh Raina, in his autobiography titled ‘Believe, What Life And Cricket Taught Me’, has shared certain events that took place in the dressing room during the infamous Greg Chappell-era. The Chennai Super Kings batsman also mentions the positive impact that Rahul Dravid had on the youngsters during those tough times.
Chappell, who was the former coach of India, was embroiled in controversy following India’s infamous exit in the 2007 ODI World Cup. What resulted from it was a spat with Sourav Ganguly, that led to the former Indian captain’s ousting from the team. This also led to a sense of insecurity in the team, which created a lot of unrest among the senior players.
I remember a senior player walked up to me and mocked me – Suresh Raina
Recollecting some of the incidents during those times, Raina explained how a senior player from the squad mocked him. He goes on to reveal that although there was no ragging in the Indian team, a few members were continually involved in tense moments.
“I remember one of the senior players of the team came up to me to mock me, saying that I was the only one who got all the ‘extra’ practice sessions as if it was only me who was going to play the match. For me, ragging was no big deal since I was used to that, thanks to my hostel life.
But I wouldn’t say anyone ever got ‘ragged’ in the Indian dressing room. What we had were some tense moments with some players. There were instances when we would greet some of the senior players in the morning, and they wouldn’t greet back,” he mentioned.
Suresh Raina goes on to talk about Rahul Dravid’s mindset when it came to handling youngsters. He praised the then Indian skipper for not letting off-field issues take a toll on the youngsters’ performance in the games.
“Rahul Bhai was a really good captain that way. He would make sure our performances weren’t affected due to those issues. So we, as younger players, would never be involved in such situations. Whenever they would have their meetings, we would go out for running or training and thus had no idea as to what happened behind closed doors,” Raina stated.
