Am the first one to know Chappelās controversial mail against Sourav Ganguly, recalls Sehwag
Virendra Sehwag revealed that he was the first to know about Greg Chappellās infamous e-mail against Sourav Ganguly to the BCCI, during the 2005 Zimbabwe tour. The dashing opener has also thanked the former Indian skipper for promoting him as an opener which changed his career altogether.
Chappell, who was appointed as the head coach of the Indian cricket team in May 2005, was sacked from his post after Indiaās poor performance in the 2007 ICC World Cup. It was heard that in one particular mail, he asked the BCCI to take away the captaincy from Ganguly and drop him for the tour of Zimbabwe later that year. Earlier, some famous Indian cricketers also spoke about theĀ dark phase in Indian Cricket during Chappellās duration as a coach and players believed that if this manĀ was able to drop the captain from theĀ teamĀ then how could they be sure about their selection.
Sachin Tendulkar's autobiography "Playing It My Way" had a paragraph against Chappell and Harbhajan Singh once said that he "destroyed Indian cricket to such an extent that it required at least three years to again get back on track". Zaheer Khan was quoted as saying that Chappell "had agendas and was getting personal."
Attending an event in Kolkata, Sehwag remembered the tough phase in Indian Cricket during Chappellās tenure and stated that he was the first person who noticed whenĀ Chappell was writing a mail to BCCI against Ganguly.Ā
āI used to take rest while fielding. I need a break of minimum five overs. I always told the umpire that I had a bad stomach and used to leave the field. So Greg was writing his email and I was sitting next to him. I saw he was writing something to the BCCI and I went and told Dada(Ganguly) about it. I told him he is writing something to the BCCI and it's something serious," Sehwag said during the launch of Boria Majumdar's book "Eleven Gods and A Billion Indians" at the Fanatic Sports Museum, reported TOI.
In a lighter moment, Sehwag also described his first hundred as the most memorable moment in his cricketing career - the innings was 105 against South Africa on debut in Bloemfontein way back in 2001.
āMy first Test hundred is the most memorable moment for sure. When I played ODIs, people said I can't play Tests and can only score in white-ball cricket. So when I scored my first Test hundred and hugged Sourav Ganguly as he gave me chance to play in Tests. I wanted to prove myself," said Sehwag, who is the only Indian cricketer to score two triple hundreds in Tests. He played 104 Tests for India and 251 ODIs in a career spanned more than a decade.
The 39-year-old further added that when he was asked to open the batting in the one-dayers, he was surprised. But skipper Ganguly and coach John Wright pushed him to do that.
"I asked them Sachin opened the batting always and Sourav also started as an opener. So why me? Let me bat in the middle order. But Sourav and John would say then you have to sit out as that is the only place for you in the team, said Sehwag, who later changed the dynamics of opening batting."
