India’s cricket coach Greg Chappell may be taken to task over comments, in a British newspaper, that Sourav Ganguly wanted to remain captain for financial reasons, an official said on Thursday.
Chappell, the Australian batting great who took over as Indian coach in June last year, told The Guardian newspaper that he wanted Ganguly out as captain because his batting form was being affected.
”We clashed because his (Ganguly) needs as a struggling player and captain and those of the team were different,” Chappell was quoted as saying in Wednesday’s edition of the newspaper.
”It was in his own interest to give himself mind space to work on his batting so that it could be resurrected, but he was not prepared to do that. What I didn’t realise at that stage was how utterly important to his life and finances being captain was.”
Ganguly, India’s most successful Test captain with 21 wins, was sacked in October last year, and later dropped from the team following a public spat with Chappell on a tour of Zimbabwe in September. Chappell later wrote in a leaked e-mail to Indian cricket chiefs that Ganguly was ”unfit” to lead India and questioned his commitment to the team.
Indian cricket board secretary Niranjan Shah said on Thursday that Ganguly had complained to him about Chappell’s adverse remarks in the newspaper interview.
”What had upset Ganguly most was Chappell’s comments that he wanted to cling on to the India captaincy for financial reasons,” Shah said. ”I will talk to (cricket board) president Sharad Pawar and apprise him of what has happened. Chappell may be issued a warning.”
Ganguly’s future as an international cricketer dimmed when he was left out for the ongoing first Test against England in Nagpur. Chief selector Kiran More told reporters last week that the 33-year-old former captain was unlikely to be selected again because of the selectors’, and Chappell’s, desire to promote young talent.
Chappell told The Guardian that he may not have succeeded New Zealander John Wright as India’s coach if Ganguly had not backed him. ”Certainly there is no way I would have got the job here without his (Ganguly’s) influence,” the former Australian captain said. ”I helped him with his batting, so maybe he thought I would be his mate and support him now. I am sure he thought he would be able to run me as he did John in the latter part of his time as coach.”
Chappell confirmed he had asked Ganguly to step down from the captaincy on the Zimbabwe tour, saying the advice was only aimed at helping him revive his career.
”In essence, I told Sourav that if he wanted to save his career he should consider giving up the captaincy,” Chappell was quoted as saying. ”He was just hanging in there. Modest innings were draining him. He had no energy to give to the team, which was helping neither him nor us.”
It has been a roller-coaster season so far for Ganguly, who has scored 5 221 runs from 88 Tests, with 12 centuries. The left-hander was selected for the first two home Tests against Sri Lanka, before being axed from the third, and was a controversial selection for the subsequent tour of Pakistan.
In Pakistan, Ganguly did not get to bat in the first Test in Lahore, was dropped for the second in Faisalabad and made 34 and 37 in the third in Karachi, which Pakistan won by 341 runs to clinch the series 1-0. — AFP
