The tenure of Greg Chappell as the Indian head coach was an eventful one. While he was the one responsible for the ouster of the then skipper Sourav Ganguly, not many cricketers especially, the senior campaigners were happy with the atmosphere in the environment when Chappell was at the helm.
One of the greats of the game, Chappell, felt that Rahul Dravid, who succeeded Ganguly as the captain of the team had the vision to make India the best team in the world. However, he wasn’t backed by the other seniors in the team which was recalled by Chappell in the Cricket Life Stories Podcast.
“Dravid was really invested in India becoming the best team in the world. Sadly, not everyone in the team had the same feeling. They would rather concentrate on being in the team. There was some resistance from some of the senior players because some of them were coming to the end of their careers,” Chappell said.
It was under Chappell that India had an embarrassing campaign in the 2007 World Cup, getting knock out at the group stage. Dravid was appointed as the Indian skipper when Ganguly was shown the exit door and though India managed to win a few bilateral series, they were far from their usual best in that period.
Ganguly after being out of the Indian team for more than a year made a dramatic comeback against South Africa at Johannesburg in 2007 before calling curtains on his illustrious career.
Chappell felt that it was the team members’ resistance that paved way for Ganguly’s return as no one wanted to change. Chappell further revealed that he was offered a new contract by BCCI but he decided not to renew the contract as he was not ready to be under too much stress.
“When Sourav got dropped from the team, we had a lot of attention from the players, because they realized if he can go, anyone can go. 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,” he added.