‘Greg Chappell leaked information, disparaged Indian culture’: Ex-Indian star’s explosive claim
Former Australia Cricketer Greg Chappell’s tenure as India’s chief coach has always been surrounded by controversies. Chappell was also heavily criticized for India’s early exit in the 2007 ODI World Cup.
Former Indian cricketer Robin Uthappa he spent several years of the initial phase of his career in the Indian team with Greg Chappell as the head coach. After working with him, Uthappa got a fair amount of ideas about the things that went wrong in his coaching tenure.
Uthappa accused Chappell of leaking certain information from the dressing room and driving the agenda. Although Uthappa feels that Chappell was good with the younger players, he called him a coach who never respected Indian culture.
“Greg Chappell led the plan” – Robin Uthappa
During the Lallantop debate, Robin Uthappa was asked about Greg Chappell’s tenure as India’s head coach leading to the downfall of Indian cricket. Uthappa claimed that the team environment under Chappell was the worst.
He accused Chappell of running a plan and coaching with an Australian mindset, which didn’t quite work out in India. According to Uthappa, Chappell never respected Indian culture and had a bad habit of leaking information when things didn’t go his way.
“Uss team ka mahaul bahut kharab tha (The environment of that team was very bad). Greg Chappell ran the plan. He trained with an Australian mindset, saying, ‘This is how we do things in Australia.’ I think he never respected Indian culture. He came and tried to bring Australian culture,” Uthappa said.
“He also had a bad habit of leaking information when things didn’t go according to his plans. This did not go well for the players. He leaked information from the dressing room,” he added.
“Greg Chappell has been very good to me” – Robin Uthappa
While Greg Chappell did not have a good relationship with the senior players, Robin Uthappa claimed that he was good to him as a youngster. He spoke about his mindset when he was selected to play international cricket for India.
“As a youngster, Greg Chappell was very good to me. I just came into the team. I was young and he supported the youngsters. As a 20-year-old, the dream was to play for India, to win for India, I hope I will win one World Cup for India,” Uthappa said.
“When you get that chance to play for the country, you feel like the boss. You don’t need anything else. I will give everything for my team. I played with that mindset,” he added.
Uthappa also revealed that under Chappell the concept of strength training was introduced which did not work very well for the senior players as they were not used to it. Ultimately, Chappell’s Australian way of working affected India’s overall performance.
One of India’s darkest days in cricket history
Under the leadership of Greg Chappell, India were eliminated from the group stage of the 2007 ODI World Cup held in the West Indies. India suffered shock defeats to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the group stage and were eliminated.
The team had no. older players with Rahul Dravid as a captain. Chappell was credited with changing the batting order in the team and making it what it is Sachin Tendulkar batting in the middle order instead of opening the innings.
