Indian board warns Chappell about remarks on Ganguly
The Indian board today warned Greg Chappell against making “unwarranted” remarks in the media about Sourav Ganguly and asked him to “confine his comments to performance of the team”.
This follows a complaint to the board from Sourav Ganguly, the former captain, regarding certain remarks the coach made in an interview to a British newspaper.
The formal warning to Chappell was issued by the BCCI through a letter barely a day after the controversial remarks on Ganguly was published. “We have written to Chappell regarding his interview in The Guardian and particularly his comments on Ganguly. We feel those remarks were unwarranted,” Niranjan Shah, the board secretary told PTI. “We have asked him [Chappell] to confine his comments to performance of the team. And we are confident that these things will not be repeated in the future.”
“What had upset Ganguly most was Chappell’s comments in the interview given to the newspaper that the Kolkata stalwart wanted to cling on to the India captaincy for financial reasons,” Shah added.
In the interview, Chappell said he had advised Ganguly to step down as captain 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”. Chappell was also quoted as saying that “what I didn’t realise at that stage was how utterly important to his life and finances being captain was”.
This is the latest controversy in what has been a chequered series of events involving Chappell, Ganguly and the Indian board. Since taking over as India’s coach last May, Chappell and Ganguly have not seen eye to eye on most issues, culminating in a controversial public spat in September. Ganguly, meanwhile, has found himself in and out of the Test side.
The emotional nature of the issue was highlighed after a full-house crowd at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, Ganguly’s home city, during a one-day international against South Africa in November booed the Indian team following their dismal performance. Chappell who was heckled by Ganguly’s fans outside the ground responded by making a finger gesture.
I agree to everything Chappel says about Gangu except that Gangu comes from a very rich family and didn’t have to stick to captaincy for financial reasons. But I do have to say that Chappel didn’t help his image by blurting out against Ganguly particularly when the guy is down and out.
**Check out this article of Cricinfo from April 2005:D **
Sourav Ganguly is in favour of Greg Chappell:cb: , the former Australian great, taking on the job of Indian coach following John Wright’s imminent departure. **Cricinfo has learned that Ganguly has put forth Chappell’s candidature before senior board officials twice, during the first one-dayers at Kochi and Visakhapatnam. **
However, this seems to be personal initiative from Ganguly. Other senior members in the team have not been consulted on the issue, and the do not see it fit to approach board officials when their views had not been sought.
Chappell, who was in Mumbai recently for a promotional event, told Cricinfo, “If they [Indian board] approach me and want to talk about it, I’m happy to do it. I’ve got plenty to do and I’m really focusing on getting on with my life. I tend not to think too much in hypothetical terms. I’m open to most things and always prepared to look and listen. If someone wants to talk to me about a job in or out of cricket I’m open-minded enough to have a listen. Coaching any national team would be a great honour, but it would also be difficult because it brings its own set of challenges. It would depend very much on what the offer was.”
Interestingly, when Chappell was in Mumbai over three days, he was not contacted by any board officials regarding the coaching job. It is understood that the board is actively seeking the advice of Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri in the selection of the new coach, and may well ask one of the two to speak to the candidate they eventually decide on.
Chappell has his hands full at the moment, running his own coaching website, ChappellWay, and working full-time with a telecommunications company he has a stake in.
Chappell was in contention for the coaching job when Wright landed it four years back, but was overlooked in the final interview stage. Although rumours about his demanding exorbitant sums of money are not entirely accurate, it is also clear that Chappell will be a more expensive prospect than someone like Wright. It is also rumoured that the final round of interviews was merely a formality, and that the board had already decided on Wright, having ascertained that he was the choice of senior members of the team. But, Chappell does not harbour any ill will from that encounter. “I tend not to hold on too much to things that happened in the past,” he said. “I prefer to look at each situation in its own right and take a decision on what needs to be done. I wouldn’t consider that a problem.”