Past Australia Cricketer Greg Chappell’s tenure as India’s head coach has always been surrounded by controversy. Chappell is also heavily criticized for India’s early exit in the 2007 ODI World Cup.
Former Indian cricketer Robin Uthappa He spent the first few years of his career with the Indian team under Greg Chappell as the head coach. After working with him, Uthappa got quite an insight into what went wrong during his coaching tenure.
Uthappa accused Chappell of leaking some information from the dressing room and driving the agenda. While Uthappa felt Chappell was good with the young players, he called him a coach who never respected Indian culture.
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“Greg Chappell was driving an agenda” – Robin Uthappa
During a discussion at Lallantop, Robin Uthappa was asked about Greg Chappell’s tenure as India’s coach, which led to India’s decline in cricket. Uthappa claimed that the team environment under Chappell was the worst.
He accused Chappell of driving the agenda and practicing an Aussie mindset that doesn’t quite work in India. According to Uthappa, Chappell never respected Indian culture and had a bad habit of leaking information when things were not in his favour.
“Uss team ka mahaul bahut kharab tha (The environment of that team was very bad). Greg Chappell was running the agenda. He was coaching with the Australian mentality and saying, ‘This is how we do things in Australia.'” I don’t think he ever respected Indian culture and He tried to bring Australian culture,” he said.
“He also had a bad habit of leaking information when things didn’t go according to his plans. It didn’t work for the players. He leaked the information of the dressing room,” he added.
“Greg Chappell was very good to me” – Robin Uthappa
Although Greg Chappell did not have a good relationship with 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.
“When I was young, Greg Chappell was very good to me. I just came into the team. I was young and he was supporting the youngsters. My 20-year-old dream is to play for India, to win for India, I hope to win a World Cup for India,” Uthappa said. .
“When you get the opportunity to play in 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 the concept of strength training was introduced during Chappell’s era, which did not work well for senior players as they were not used to it. Ultimately, Chappell’s Australian style of work affected India’s overall performance.
One of the darkest days in Indian cricket history
Under the leadership of Greg Chappell, India were eliminated from the group stage of the 2007 ODI World Cup in the West Indies. India suffered shock defeats to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the group stage and were eliminated.
The team was good. with great players Rahul Dravid as a captain. Chappell was credited with changing the team’s batting order and possession Sachin Tendulkar batting through the middle order instead of opening the innings.
