Greg Chappell is one of those former cricketers from outside of India who has had a very tetchy relationship with the fans and a few of the cricketers of this country. In this piece, we explore the reasons behind Chappell’s problems with India and why he is such a disliked figure in the country.
Chappell checks in
India’s tryst with foreign coaches had begun well when they hired New Zealander John Wright to lead the charge for the team in the year 2000.
In the five years that Wright was the India coach, he helped mould the team into a solid Test and ODI unit, winning the 2001 Border-Gavaskar Trophy from behind against Australia, clinching the NatWest Trophy in England, ending joint-winners at the Champions Trophy and reaching the final of the 2003 World Cup.
He opted out of continuing with his contract in 2005, paving the way for Chappell to replace him as India’s second successive foreign coach.
Chappell was one of the chief contenders for the job but had India’s Mohinder Amarnath and other overseas former players in Dav Whatmore, Graham Ford, Desmond Haynes, Tom Moody and John Emburey to ward off to become the India coach.
What looked to have helped Chappell – and this will prove to be a factor later – was the word of the then-skipper Sourav Ganguly, who had enjoyed working with him in Australia during the 2003-04 tour.
The Aussie pipped the other rivals, was appointed India coach and all seemed to be going well. Little did anyone know that the two years that would follow would prove to be the most tumultous in the recent history of Indian cricket outside of the match-fixing allegations.
Problems start as soon as Chappell takes over
On a $175,000-per-annum contract with the BCCI, Chappell took over the reins as the coach of the Indian team for the Indian Oil Cup tri-series which was held in Sri Lanka in July-August 2005. Ganguly had been indisposed for this tournament and the side was led by Rahul Dravid.
India made the final where they suffered their third successive loss to Sri Lanka, losing by 18 runs.
Ganguly returned to the fold as the skipper on India’s tour of Zimbabwe that year and that’s where the problems began.
One of the most important aspect of Chappell’s time with the team was his push towards playing youngsters in the team and in doing so, it was obvious that the seniors would feel the brunt.
One such player was the captain Ganguly who was asked by Chappell to consider giving up on his captaincy in order to focus on his batting.
A thoroughly irritated Ganguly threatened to pack his bags and leave Zimbabwe and while he would continue to remain in the side, he revealed to the media that there were those in the team management who wanted him to quit as a captain.
Ganguly did not name Chappell directly but there were enough rumour circulating that the Indian coach might have been behind this.
Chappell would later admit there had been discussions with Ganguly about his form and all of those were targetted at helping the Indian captain to regain his run-scoring. Ganguly would score a century in the first Test of that series against Zimbabwe.
That did not change things and matters soured further when an email sent by Chappell to the BCCI was leaked to the media. In this email, the full text of which is available here
, Chappell is alleged to have slammed Ganguly’s habits, from his captaincy to his fitness and beyond.
Parts of what was allegedly written in this leaked email includes:
I also told him that his state of mind was fragile and it showed in the way that he made decisions on and off the field in relation to the team, especially team selection.
We discussed other issues in relation to captaincy and the time and effort it took that was eating into his mental reserves and making it difficult to prepare properly for batting in games.
I told him that he might like to consider opening in the Test as the middle order was going to be a tight battle with Kaif and Yuvraj demanding selection.
The next day I enquired with a number of the players as to what they had thought of Sourav’s retirement. The universal response was that it was ‘just Sourav’ as they recounted a list of times when Sourav had suffered from mystery injuries that usually disappeared as quickly as they had come.
A short time later [the team manager] Mr Chowdhary came on to the field and informed me that Sourav had told him that I did not want him as captain and that Sourav wanted to leave Zimbabwe immediately if he wasn’t playing.
At the completion of the Test match I was approached by VVS Laxman with a complaint that Sourav had approached him on the eve of the Test saying that I had told Sourav that I did not want Laxman in the team for Test matches. I denied that I had made such a remark to Sourav, or anybody else for that matter, as, on the contrary, I saw Laxman as an integral part of the team.
Greg King’s training reports continue to show Sourav as the person who does the least fitness and training work based on the criterion that has been developed by the support staff to monitor the work load of all the players.
This team has been made to be fearful and distrusting by the rumour mongering and deceit that is Sourav’s modus operandi of divide and rule.
Following the release of this email, the BCCI summoned both Chappell and Ganguly for a meeting and it was later revealed that the two would look to work together for the betterment of the Indian team.
The damage, unfortunately, had been done by then and things began to unravel pretty quickly after that.
It is very rare for youngsters in the team to come out in the media against the current coach but that’s what happened when Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh castigated Chappell for instilling insecurity in the players.
This resulted in Harbhajan having to explain his actions to the Punjab Cricket Association before the BCCI rushed in to issue a media gag order for the players.
Ganguly loses his captaincy, Chappell his control
Ganguly suffered an injury soon after this and couldn’t captain the side in their seven-match series against Sri Lanka. While he was fit by the start of the fifth game, the selectors decided not to change the winning combination – India were 4-0 up by then – and Dravid continued to lead the team.
This was followed by Ganguly losing his spot in the squad for even the home ODIs against South Africa, a series that ended 2-2.
It included a game in Kolkata on November 25, 2005, Ganguly’s hometown, where Chappell and the Indian team was booed by the crowd. As South Africa cruised to a 10-wicket win in that game, the crowds began to cheer for the visitors with every run they scored.
Earlier before the game, as the Indian bus made its way to the ground, Chappell was seen waving his middle finger at the protesting crowds. This led to further questions about Chappell, but he defended himself saying he had injured his finger and was only inspecting it.
While Ganguly was then included in the Test series against Sri Lanka, the captaincy duties were passed on to Rahul Dravid. Virender Sehwag was named his deputy.
Ganguly featured in two Tests of that series but did not do too well and lost his place in the side for the third Test. This meant he was out of both, the ODI and Test match set-up for the time being.
In the Test series against Pakistan that followed soon after, Ganguly was recalled but there were question-marks around whether he would make it to the playing XI. Following a heated debate that Ganguly had with the captain-coach combination of Dravid and Chappell at the ground, he was picked at the expense of Gautam Gambhir.
Ganguly was dropped from the second Test and made two low scores in the third Test which India lost. In all three Tests, India’s best number three batter Dravid had been forced to open.
This was followed by Ganguly losing his spot for India’s home series against England and the away series against West Indies, which meant he had been out of the team nearly half a year.
Under Chappell, India would go on to crash out of the 2006 Champions Trophy in the very first round and get thrashed 4-0 by South Africa.
This meant that Ganguly was finally brought back into the Test squad for the away series against South Africa, where he scored 214 runs at 42.8. It was the highest for any Indian in that low-scoring series and including a match-winning, unbeaten 51 in the first Test at Johannesburg.
Ganguly’s solid batting forced the selectors to bring him into the side for ODIs against West Indies and Sri Lanka and he did rather well there to gain a spot in India’s line-up for the 2007 World Cup.
India’s 2007 World Cup exit ends Chappell’s stint
Chappell’s time with the Indian team depended on the side’s showing at the 2007 World Cup. In what turned out to be their most dismal performance since the 1992 World Cup, India bowed out of the competition in the first round itself, losing to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the process.
With a lot of the criticism coming his way, Chappell realised his days as the Indian coach were numbered and he resigned from the job soon after.
What happened after Chappell was sacked?
India did not have a full-time coach for a while after Greg Chappell was sacked. Ravi Shastri took over as an interim coach for a series while Lalchand Rajput was involved with the coaching set-up under whom India won the 2007 T20 World Cup.
It was in 2008 that the BCCI finally appointed Gary Kirsten as their full-time coach. He would do well in gaining the confidence of all the players and by the time his contract with Team India ended in 2011, he had won the team the 2011 World Cup.
Duncan Fletcher, Anil Kumble, Ravi Shastri and Rahul Dravid have all played their part in being the national coaches of the Indian side over the years following Chappell’s departure.
How did Chappell’s career shape up after the India stint?
His stint with the Indian team didn’t stop him from getting picked by Rajasthan Royals as their academy coach.
Chappell would go on to become the Australia selector in 2010 in place of Merv Hughes in the line-up. However, he didn’t last too long with Chappell and the other members of the panel, Andrew Hilditch and Tim Nielsen (who was also the Australia coach) getting sacked in a year’s time.
According to newspaper reports, Chappell was banned from the Australian dressing room during his time as the coach because of his allegedly caustic comments during matches.
He would later be appointed the Cricket Australia’s national talent manager.
The former India coach would go on to take up multiple roles including commentary and while he would later back the Big Bash League as an exciting concept, Chappell did say its expansion could kill the golden goose.
In recent years…
Incidentally, according to reports, Chappell’s financial condition wasn’t the best at one point in 2023. This had forced his friends to set up a GoFundMe campaign online to try and raise money for Greg Chappell.
Chappell admitted that while he hadn’t plunged in destitution, he wasn’t living a life of luxury either – especially when compared with the cricketers of current times.
A ‘tribute lunch’ was held for Greg at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on October 23, 2023 which was attended by his brothers Ian and Trevor among other cricketers. This was hosted by Eddie McGuire.
Later a GoFundMe campaign to raise $250,000 was set up in the name of Greg Chappell.