New Delhi: Former India captain Sourav Ganguly feels that Greg Chappell’s presence in the Australian dressing room trying to plot the downfall of Indian batsmen, won’t be of much benefit to the home team.
A couple of days back, a report in the Daily Telegraph stated that former India coach Chappell has been invited by current coach Mickey Arthur to address Aussie players on how to tackle champion batsman Sachin Tendulkar.
“Chappell will address the Australian squad for the first Test next week and he is the one man with the knowledge to demystify the champion (Tendulkar) Australia never feel they have got to the bottom of,” the report said.
“To Australian bowlers, Tendulkar has been the master they have never mastered. His record against Australia in Tests – he averages 60.6 with 11 centuries in 31 Tests – makes him the greatest Aussie basher of his generation,” it further stated.
According to Ganguly, with whom Chappell shared a tumultous captain-coach relationship, the latter’s presence in Australia’s support staff unit during their tour of India, back in 2008 wasn’t of much help.
“If you look back at 2008 series which happened to be my last, Chappell was present in Australian team’s support staff. Yet we won the series 2-0. Therefore, I don’t think his presence would make any difference this time also,” Ganguly said.Ganguly was also scathing in his comments about how Chappell-the coach operated.
“He came with some personal vendetta and also lacked foresight. He didn’t want a settled dressing room. He made mistake after mistake but the then captain Rahul Dravid never had the guts to stop him (Chappell) from his wrongdoing.”
Chappell in his recently published autobiography had stated that Ganguly wanted him to be “grateful” for getting him the India coach’s job. “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’. Ganguly on his part said that it was his “mistake” to get Chappell the coach’s job. (PTI)