Dubai: The spat between Virat Kohli and Anil Kumble, which boiled over at a high profile event like the ICC Champions Trophy last year, is still fresh in public memory. However, the backdrop for the biggest stand-off between the coach and captain in Indian cricket more than a decade back couldn’t be more stark in contrast - the sleepy backdrop of Mutare in Zimbabwe.
The first signs of discord between Sourav Ganguly and Greg Chappell, the man whom the former played a big hand in roping in as Indian
coach, were sown during the tour of Zimbabwe in 2005 – with Ganguly very much in the saddle. It was during an innocuous tour game against Zimbabwe A, when the Indian skipper felt a tennis elbow, which was bothering him for sometime, flaring up again when he was batting.
With the first Test match round the corner, Ganguly decided not to take any chances and retired hurt. The Australian coaching guru was not exactly convinced with the extent of his injury and insisted that Ganguly goes out to bat again – a suggestion that was turned down by the Indian captain. The fallout was far-fetched when just on the eve of the first Test at Bulawayo a few days later, Chappell tried to use his veto power and told the captain that he didn’t have ‘a place in the playing XI.’ A piece of dressing room secret, which Ganguly spilled before the media after scoring a century in the first Test.
It was only the tipping point of a controversy which saw the ‘Prince of Kolkata’ being removed from the captaincy and eventually the national team - a spot which he regained in what would rate as one of the most incredible comeback stories more than a year later.
Looking back at the episode in a lengthy chapter in Boria Majumdar’s forthcoming book: “Eleven gods and a billion Indians: The On and Off
the Field Story of Cricket in India and Beyond,” Ganguly says: “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 reminisced. The book, published by UK-based Simon and Schuster, will be launched in mid-April in India, United Kingdom, Australia and North America with online pre-booking already under way.
The controversial chapter, made available to Gulf News, attempts a 360 degree analysis on how the senior cricketers in the Indian team (read: Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, V.V.S.Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan & Harbhajan Singh) were disenchanted by the methods of Chappell. “Greg
had pushed our cricket back by at least four years,” remarked Tendulkar, the little master usually known for his politically correct approach,
in his authorised autobiography ‘Playing it My Way.’
Taking a peek at the contents of the 450 pages-plus book, Majumdar says: “It’s the first book ever that will take the readers backstage
and talk about what really happens in the world of Indian cricket. From controversies to humour to inside stories, it is full of
anecdotes and is meant to finally document it all.”
A leading cricket and sports historian, Majumdar’s upcoming effort is not just about dressing room drama and anecdotes though. There are chapters
to track down the genesis of the game in India, the drama and the politicking behind the selection of Ajit Wadekar over Tiger Pataudi as the captain
of India in 1971 – a watershed moment to eventually the growth of India as the game’s financial superpower.
