“He was really invested” – Greg Chappell speaks on Rahul Dravid’s potential during his playing days to make India the best team in the world
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Greg Chappell and Rahul Dravid
Greg Chappell‘s controversial stint as India’s head coach sparked a great deal of interest and drama among cricket fans. His time with the Indian cricket team will be remembered for a long time by those who were involved. Chappell took over as the Indian cricket team’s head coach in 2005 after New Zealand’s John Wright who had a successful period with the Indian team.
After all these years, Chappell points out how Rahul Dravid was determined to make India the best team but lacked support from other players. Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Harbhajan Singh have publicly chastised Greg Chappell’s coaching, which resulted in India’s embarrassment at the 2007 World Cup when they were defeated by Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Greg Chappell on the potential Rahul Dravid had
Rahul Dravid had the potential to make Team India the world’s best team but lacked help from his national teammates. Chappell also mentioned seeing “resistance” in some players, which he believes did not help the team.
“Dravid was really invested in India becoming the best team in the world. Sadly, not everyone in the team had the same feeling. They would rather concentrate on being in the team. There was some resistance from some of the senior players because some of them were coming to the end of their careers,” said Greg Chappell.
Chappell claims that the team’s senior members were more worried about their own place in the team than with the team’s overall well-being. Chappell also discusses how excluding Ganguly from the team sent a word to all that no one can take their positions for granted. Though this succeeded at first, he believes that things changed once Ganguly returned.
“When Sourav got dropped from the team, we had a lot of attention from the players, because they realized if he can go, anyone can go. We had a great 12 months, but then the resistance got too much, Ganguly came back into the team. The message from the players was loud and clear – ‘We don’t want change.’ Even though the board offered me a new contract, I decided that I did not need that kind of stress,” added Greg Chappell.
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