India’s controversial former cricket coach Greg Chappell claims the biggest regret of his tumultuous three-year stint there was the fallout with senior batsman Sachin Tendulkar with whom he simply failed to “communicate” properly.
Mr. Chappell, who served as India’s coach from 2005 to 2007, admitted in his new autobiography Fierce Foucs that he tried to push hurried improvements in the team which led to his downfall, especially after his relations with senior players such as Tendulkar soured.
“My biggest regret was falling out with Sachin over him batting at number four in the one-day team. It was a shame because he and I had some intense and beneficial talks together prior to that. My impatience to see improvement across the board was my undoing in the end,” writes the former Australian captain.
“The mistakes I made were not particularly ‘western’ but the same kind of mistakes I’d made as a captain in my playing days. I didn’t communicate my plans well enough to the senior players. I should have let guys like Tendulkar, (VVS) Laxman and (Virender) Sehwag know that although I was an agent of change, they were still part of our Test future”.
“When I did communicate with them, I was sometimes too abrupt. Once in South Africa, I called in Sachin and Sehwag to ask more of them, I could tell by the look on their faces that they were affronted,” he recalled.
“Later (Rahul) Dravid, who was in the room, said ‘Greg, they’ve never been spoken to like that before’,” he wrote.
Mr. Chappell dubbed his stay in India as ‘tenuous’ alleging that the BCCI tried to make his stint uncomfortable, delaying paying his bills and wages.
