Former India coach Greg Chappell has reignited his controversy with former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly. Chappell coached India which Ganguly as the captain in 2005 when this entire saga unfolded. Ganguly was also dropped from the team in 2005 after having several disagreements with Chappell. Despite Ganguly himself recommending Greg Chappell for the coach’s job, both had a sour relationship during the Australian’s tenure as the coach from 2005, which ended in an early group stage exit from the 2007 World Cup.
Meanwhile, speaking to Australian media, Greg Chappell slammed fresh allegations on Sourav Ganguly. He said that the former Indian skipper did not want to work hard and wanted to stay in the team just as a captain.
“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,” Greg Chappell said while speaking on the Cricket Life Stories podcast.
Greg Chappell further said that he wanted Ganguly had a role to play in his appointment as the coach. However, he wanted to coach the team on his own terms. He wanted to coach the Indian team how John Buchanan coached the Australian team. However, that experiment failed very badly which led to the infamous spat between the two which remains one of the most controversial chapters in Indian cricket.
Sourav Ganguly Approached Me On Coaching India: Greg Chappell
“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.”
Chappell concluded by revealing the reason behind why he quit the Indian coaching role. He said he was offered a new contract by the BCCI which he denied because he did not want ‘that kind of stress’.
“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,” the 72-year-old stated.
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