Ganguly Faked Injuries - Greg Chappell

[Jambhalheart]

Their sour relationship was no secret but the attack launched by former India cricket coach Greg Chappell on Sourav Ganguly in his just-published autobiography reveals the Australian’s much deeper bitterness towards the ex-Indian skipper.

There was “no bigger panicker” than Ganguly, writes Chappell about the elegant left-hander who is till now India’s most successful captain.

Chappell acknowledges that Ganguly’s support was one of the reasons he got the coach’s job in 2005. But states that the Indian’s idea probably was ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours’.

“He expected I would be so grateful to him for getting me the job that I’d become his henchman in his battle to remain captain. I, on the other hand, took on a job with the primary responsibility to Indian cricket and the Indian people,” Chappell says in the book Fierce Focus.

“I felt strongly that if he gave up the captaincy, he could find a way to batting greatness. He didn’t want a coach, or an agent of change. He wanted a political ally,” Chappell said.

On the team’s trip to Zimbabwe, Chappell described how the daily results affected the moods of players and accused Ganguly of confusing them with constant changes.

“When I sat down and talked with him about it, he would agree to everything I asked, but then go his own way. Some other senior players were similarly expert at Gandhian passive resistance: saying ‘Yes yes yes’ before doing the exact opposite. Each time he agreed, then didn’t do it,” he wrote.

“In a warm up for the Tests, against Zimbabwe-A at Mutare, Sourav went missing for the toss so I went out to do his duty for him. I lost. When he learnt what I’d done, he seemed more vexed that I’d lost than that the coach had had to do the captain’s job,” he said.

During the match, Chappell also accused Ganguly of faking an injury and walking off after four overs.

“He was retiring hurt, yet he appeared to have no injury. I suggested he go for an MRI scan, but he declined. I’d seen a lot of excuses over my years from guys who didn’t want to bat in difficult conditions, but normally they were more subtle than this,” he wrote.

“He, in my view, was simply frightened of a failure before the test series,” he said.

Chappell recalled that when that when he inquired about Ganguly’s actions from some of his teammates, they said it had been going on for some years.

“…joking that he had a miracle doctor in Kolkata, because his serious injuries always cleared up when he went home.”

Chappell revealed that during the 2006 South African series, Ganguly sent him a text message saying he felt like his ‘son’ and would do anything to come back into the team.

“As I wasn’t a selector, that wasn’t my decision, but it turned out that a deal had been done among the panel and he was picked as the ‘all-rounder’ for the Test series against Sri Lanka,” he wrote.

Chappell said he feared that Ganguly’s reinstatement would destabilise the new captain Rahul Dravid and jeopardise the improvement that the team had made.

“Sure enough, the very complicated ducks and drakes being played among the politicians and administrators resulted in Sourav’s reinstatement as a player for our tour to Pakistan,” he wrote.

[GUNTUR2US]

Credible

[Aavakaaya Biryaani]

hmmmmmm