Sourav Ganguly reveals precious insights on his infamous fallout with Greg Chappell

The infamous fallout between erstwhile Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly and former India coach Greg Chappell is no secret to Indian cricket fans. Chappell, who was brought in on the recommendation of Ganguly only, went on to become the prime reason for left-hander’s ouster from the national team. The ugly spat which saw the ‘Prince of Kolkata’ forced out of the team and somewhat initiate a premature decline of his career is nearly a decade old now but the former skipper has come out openly about it in his book “Eleven Gods And A Billion Indians”, and revealed certain essential insights.

Authored by cricket historian Boria Majumdar, the book revolves around the on and off the field story of cricket in India and beyond. 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.

Chappell took over the reigns in July 2005, when Ganguly was serving a six-match ban imposed on him in March 2005 for slow over rate. Rahul Dravid was elected interim captain. And for the Zimbabwe tour in September the same year, Ganguly was restored with captaincy duties. But something didn’t feel right to the Indian skipper. Talking in the book, Ganguly revealed, “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. He added, “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’.”

Greg committed multiple shenanigans to see Ganguly out

Ganguly revealed the problems started with a side game in Zimbabwe against Zimbabwe A team when the skipper was hurting from a tennis elbow and “retired hurt” to nurse the injury as it was an inconsequential match. And much to Ganguly’s surprise, Chappell insisted that he goes out and bat.

The chapter also mentions about the email leak in which Chappell talked at length about the match and how Ganguly was “spasmodic in his treatment habits”. The 45-year-old even highlighted an incident where Chappell literally shouted at him one day as he was dosing off and termed his “lazy” that was leading to India’s suffering.