Chappell vs Sachin was bad enough, but now we have Dravid vs Ganguly too

New Delhi: The Sachin Tendulkar autobiography, ‘Playing It My Way’ has not even hit the book stores and it is already driving a wedge between two of India’s biggest cricketing superstars.

It all began with with Tendulkar stating in the book that former coach Greg Chappell had asked him to take over from Rahul Dravid.

“Just months before the (2007) World Cup, Chappell had come to see me at home and, to my dismay, suggested that I should take over the captaincy from Rahul Dravid,” Tendulkar writes. “Anjali (Tendulkar’s wife), who was sitting with me was equally shocked to hear him say that ’together, we could control Indian cricket for years’, and that he would help me in taking over the reins of the side.

“I was surprised to hear the coach not showing the slightest amount of respect for the captain, with cricket’s biggest tournament just months away. He stayed for a couple of hours, trying to convince me, before finally leaving.”

Ganguly had quickly added his voice to that of Tendulkar, saying Chappell’s reign as coach was one of the worst phases of Indian cricket,

“I really don’t want to go back to that period, you have seen it in the results. [It was> one of worst phases of Indian cricket and worst phase a cricketer can go through, especially someone like me. There were lies after lies and six months later he wanted Rahul removed and Sachin as captain. This goes on to show how the man went about his job.

“When I came back to the team [after the 2007 World Cup>, I had spoken to Dravid about that much later and told him that these were the things going on. He said he knew it all but ‘couldn’t control Greg’.”

So yesterday, first Chappell reacted by saying that he had had no such meeting with Sachin and then later in the day, Dravid quashed Sourav Ganguly’s take that he had told him he could not control Greg Chappell.

Dravid, in an interview to a leading news channel, said that, “If Ganguly is saying I could not control Greg Chappell, he is entitled to an opinion. He has played many years for India. But he can’t put words in my mouth as I have never had any such conversation with him.”

Dravid also went on to add that he had a good relationship with all his coaches.

With PTI inputs