New Delhi: Former India cricketer Yuvraj Singh joined his former teammate Harbhajan Singh in hitting out at former India head coach Greg Chappell. Harbhajan had earlier referred to Chappell’s time with Team India as ‘worst days of Indian cricket’ following the latter’s remark on former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
It all started with Harbhajan taking note of an article on Dhoni where Chappell is quoted as saying that he used to advice the Ranchi wicket-keeper to play along the ground more instead of trying to hit every ball to the boundary. Harbhajan’s post read: “He asked Dhoni to play along the ground coz coach was hitting everyone out the park.. He was playing different games. #worstdaysofindiancricketundergreg.” Yuvraj replied to Harbhajan’s Tweet and seemingly took a dig at Chappell. His post read: “Msd and Yuvi no sixes in the last 10 play down the ground.”
Chappell was coach of the Indian team for two controversy-riddled years between 2005 and 2007 in which he clashed with several senior members of the team, especially then-captain and current Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly. His time, however, was also known for the rise of several younger players in the squad including Dhoni and Suresh Raina. “I vividly remember that I was left awestruck when I saw him (Dhoni) batting for the first time. He was definitely the most exciting cricketer in India at that time. He used to hit the ball from the most unusual positions. He is the most powerful batsman I have ever seen,” said Chappell during a chat session on the Facebook handle of the Playwrite Foundation.
“I remember his knock of 183 against Sri Lanka and how he tore them apart. It was power hitting at its very best. The next match was in Pune. I asked MS, ‘why don’t you play along the ground more instead of trying to hit every ball to the boundary’. We were chasing 260 odd and were in a good position and Dhoni was playing a contrasting innings to the one he had played just a couple of days before.
“We still needed 20 runs to win and Dhoni asked me, through 12th man RP Singh if he could hit sixes. I told him not until the target was in single digit. When we needed six runs to win, he finished the game with a six,” he said. (IANS)
