Ganguly sought Wright’s apology - Shukla
A sobbing Virender Sehwag, an incensed Indian team and an angry Sourav Ganguly, the captain, demanding an apology from coach John Wright. This was the tense scene in the Indian dressing-room at The Oval in 2002 after Wright hd held Sehwag by the collar and “barked” at him for throwing away his wicket in a NatWest Trophy match against Sri Lanka in England.
The former New Zealand skipper has gone public with this sensational incident in his just-published book John Wright’s Indian Summers and more details of what happened emerged today from the then manager of the Indian team Rajiv Shukla, now a senior office-bearer of the Indian board.
Asked about Wright’s revelation, a reluctant Shukla told PTI that he had kept the incident under wraps all these years because what happens inside the dressing-room is not supposed to be divulged. However, this no longer applied as Wright had spilled the beans, he said.
“We were sitting in the balcony outside the dressing room at The Oval. Sehwag had just got out and gone into the dressing-room. Suddenly an agitated captain Ganguly came out from the room and complained to me that the coach had slapped Sehwag who was sobbing,” Shukla recalled. “I rushed to the dressing-room and found that Sehwag was indeed sobbing. He told me that Wright had pushed him. I patted him and controlled him.”
Shukla then went looking for the coach. “He was not in the dressing-room but after some effort I found him in a small room adjacent to it. He was all by himself, tensed up and smoking as he usually did whenever he was in tension,” he said.
Shukla said he had told Wright that he should not have treated Sehwag in this manner and that the opening batsman was justifiably upset. "Wright immediately accepted his mistake. My own view is that the coach wanted Sehwag to score more runs and when the batsman had got out he could not control his anger because of which he had got hold of Sehwag’s collar and pushed him.
“I knew that Wright had affection for Sehwag and had reacted to his getting out like a guru reacting to the failure of a disciple. He always used to urge Sehwag not to lift the ball because he often lost his wicket that way.”
An angry Ganguly demanded that Wright should apologise to the entire team and this, says Shukla, put him in a difficult position. He immediately consulted Sachin Tendulkar and the team’s media manager Amrit Mathur. “The advice I got was that in case Wright apologised to the whole team, his authority will be eroded. I thought this was a valid point,” Shukla said.
“I persuaded Sehwag not to seek an apology from the coach in front of the entire team. Wright was also persuaded to speak to Sehwag and assuage his feelings when the team returned to the hotel. Both agreed to this. Wright spoke to Sehwag and admitted his mistake.”
A potentially explosive situation was thus resolved and did not become public despite so many Indian and British journalists orbiting the teams.
SOURCE: http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/australia/content/current/story/256536.html
Wright reveals dressing-room altercation with Sehwag
In an explosive moment in the Indian dressing-room during the NatWest Trophy in England in 2002 Virender Sehwag was grabbed by the collar by John Wright who was the coach then. This was after Sehwag had played a reckless shot to get out. Wright has written about the incident in his just-published book, Indian Summers, while referring to the Indian team’s tour of England.
He recalls that India had bundled out Sri Lanka, the third team in the tournament, for 202 on a flat wicket at The Oval. “I had been trying to get Sehwag to temper his boldness which too often of late had crossed the line into recklessness,” he writes. Shortly after Sourav Ganguly had got out in the second over, Sehwag holed out trying to blast one back over the bowler’s head, leaving India at 26 for 2.
“I had enough of players trotting out the ‘natural game’ line as an excuse for failing to take responsibility and disregarding the match situation. When Sehwag wandered in, I decided it was time for a sort-out. Not realising that my exasperation levels had soared into the red zone, I went up to him, grabbed him by the collar and barked: ‘What the hell’s going on? How can you come back in here after playing a shot like that and unbuckle your pads as if nothing’s happened.’ Everyone froze - it was like someone had pulled out a gun - and I turned on my heel and stomped out.”
Wright says in the subsequent team meetings he was told by the players that he had been a “bit rough” and he accepted that he had indeed gone overboard. Wright also said he had a face to face with Sehwag at the team hotel. “Sehwag told me bluntly that he didn’t like what I’d done. I acknowledged that he was entitled to feel aggrieved, but added that I didn’t give a damn if he poured his heart out to every newspaper in India.”
Justifying his action, Wright says there was an urgent need for something to be done because it had not got to the point where the single-minded commitment to winning overrode all other considerations of the players. “The volcano had been rumbling for a while, and it just happened to be Sehwag who triggered the eruption. He took it better than some of the others would have and we remained mates.”
Wright says the Sehwag episode did not do the rounds by word of mouth or find its way into the press which showed “we were a pretty tight team”. He also says he used Andrew Leipus, the team physiotherapist, and trainer Adrian Le Roux to keep track of the “temperature and mood” of the dressing-room. “From time to time outsiders who read too much into my public persona suggested that maybe I was too soft for the job, but I don’t think that view held sway on the other side of the dressing-room door.”
Wright says whenever the players thought he had crossed the line from being frank to brutal, they gave him the cold shoulder. “When you say ‘good morning’, they look right through you and keep walking. When that happened to me I’d answer for them - ‘Good morning, John’, and take on the broad message that there was a bit of bridge building to be done. Sometimes it would come out of the blue and I’d wonder what’s up with him, but usually the player was reacting to a verbal rocket or being dropped.”
Wright says he had to do a bit of “ego massage” at times when he realised that there was some justification in their sulk. “The core message that I wanted to come through in everything I did and said was that I cared. I cared for them as people, and as cricketers, and I cared for our team.”
SOURCE: http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/australia/content/story/256518.html
