Former India captain Sourav Ganguly bitter fallout with former coach Greg Chappell has been considered as one of the darkest episode of Indian cricket. Looking back at his selection fiasco in the Greg Chappell era, Ganguly has come out openly in a book — “Eleven Gods And A Billion Indians”, the on and off the field story of cricket in India and beyond — authored by cricket historian Boria Majumdar.
“Greg came to me one evening and showed me a team he had picked for the Test match. Some key players were not in his playing XI and I was a little taken aback at what he was trying to do,” Ganguly said recollecting about the turn of events in the build up to first Test against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo in September 2005.
“Something from the very start of the tour was not right. I don’t know what had happened but something definitely had gone amiss.
“I think some people who Greg had become close to may have told him that with me around, he would never have his way in Indian cricket and that may have triggered a reaction.
“Whatever it may have been, he was not the same Chappell in Zimbabwe compared to the one who had helped me get ready for the Australian tour in December 2003,” Ganguly went on about the
“I rejected his suggestions and said to him clearly that the people he wanted out had done great things for Indian cricket while he had just been there for three months. He needed to spend more time to fully understand the situation before he started taking tough calls. He, it was clear to me, was in a hurry to make the team ‘Greg Chappell’s team’.” Their differences, Ganguly revelead, started with a side game in Zimbabwe against the Zimbabwe A team when the skipper was hurting from a tennis elbow as he the left-hander “retired hurt” to nurse the injury as it was an inconsequential match.
Published by Simon & Schuster, the 500-page book will be launched during the Indian Premier League and it would contain a lot of nuggets about the off-field stories of Indian cricket.
