Ganguly-Chappell fracas continues

I have been a great fan of Chappell and his strategies and policies so far (and not so much a fan of Ganguly, who has not taken the graceful way out despite failing form and has instead become a divisive force within the Indian side)... but...why oh why would Chappell flare the flames of their fracas again with an interview like this..and that too now!

Captaincy was important to Sourav’s finances: Greg

Maybe this interview was given before the team for the first test for the England series was announced (and Ganguly left out). In any case, I would expect stuff like this to come out from Chappell at some later date when he leaves the Indian coaching job... (Will truly be interesting and controversial, to say the least, if/when some day Wright, Dravid, Tendulkar, or even Ganguly writes a book on their perspectives from their coaching/playing days over the last decade ..I'd be especially interesting to hear what Dravid has to say about what has transpired over the last year!)..but it is highly irresponsible for Chappell to come out with statements about captaincy being important to Ganguly's finances etc! I am not sure it is even accurate for I think it is more an ego thing for a hard-fighting aggressive guy like Ganguly and not money. The very reasons we loved Ganguly and drove him to be the most successful Indian captain are the same reasons he has failed to recognize that the end is here and it is time for him to leave gracefully! I had imagined he would have to be dragged out yelling from the field and surely he has proved to do that and more....

Though admittedly, Chappell does honestly state the facts as he sees them and is consistent in his reasoning..'Certainly, there is no way I would have got the job here without his influence. But, we clashed because his needs as a struggling player and captain and those of the team were different.'

He goes on to say, recalling Ganguly approaching him for batting tips during India's tour of Australia in 2003, 'I helped him with his batting then. So maybe he thought I would be his mate and support him now. I am sure he thought he would be able to run me as he did John in the latter part of his time as coach.'

Also: Chappell once again confirmed that he did ask Ganguly to step down from captaincy but the advice was only aimed at helping him revive his career. 'In essence, I told Sourav that if he wanted to save his career he should consider giving up the captaincy. He was just hanging in there. Modest innings were draining him. He had no energy to give to the team, which was helping neither him nor us. It was in his own interest to give himself mind space to work on his batting so that it could be resurrected but he was not prepared to do that,' he added. The Aussie said he had no idea what captaincy meant for Ganguly and why he wanted to cling on to the post despite the fact that he was undergoing the worst phase of his career. 'What I didn’t realise at that stage was how utterly important to his life and finances being captain was.'

And this rings true for sure... 'I am thorough, a realist, a pragmatist and I’m honest'.

This picture says it all - a no-nonsense Clint Eastwood-esque lion-like personality!

Anyways, the last is not over as apparantly, Saurav Ganguly has brought this piece to the attention of the BCCI... 'My attention has been drawn to the article by Sourav and I will take it up with the Board tomorrow' —BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah to DNA on Wednesday.

Update: BCCI has officially warned Greg Chappel.