sydney We keep hearing a saying from ancient times in Sanskrit, Aham Brahmasmi.. that means I am the creator of the universe and no one can be greater than me. In English, people also call it superiority complex. You can often see this saying being implemented in the game of cricket. Where the self-respect of the coach and the captain collided and the one with power overpowered the other. No one could have imagined what happened on the Sydney grounds.
In the last match of the series, the captain was sacrificed and the coach was about to be sacrificed. The fight for supremacy between one player and another has been seen many times, but Indian history is the opposite. If you look at the pages of history, you will find three such incidents which caused harm to both Indian cricket and the individual. Especially when the coach and the captain were not on the same page, then there was a tsunami in Indian cricket.
Greg Chappell-Ganguly controversy
Greg Chappell’s tenure as the coach of the Indian cricket team has been full of controversies. But his/her differences with Saurabh Ganguly at one time divided the Indian cricket team. Its foundation was laid in 2005 itself. But by the time of the 2007 World Cup, the matter had become quite explosive. The dispute between Ganguly and Chappell had increased so much that Ganguly was removed from the post of captain of the Indian team in 2005. Not only this, Ganguly was also removed from the ODI team. The interesting thing is that it was on the recommendation of Ganguly that Greg Chappell was made the coach of the Indian team.
Eventually Ganguly joined the team and also became a part of the 2007 World Cup team, whose captain was Rahul Dravid. But the pain regarding Chappell remained in Ganguly’s mind. In 2007, after the poor performance of the team, Greg Chappell was removed from the post of coach.
Kumble – Kohli controversy
On June 20, 2017, Indian cricket will never forget when egos clashed between two giants and the captain’s stature overshadowed the coach. Anil Kumble was the coach of the Indian team at that time and Virat Kohli was the captain of the team. The relationship between Kohli and Kohli started right from the first series but after the defeat in the final of Champions Trophy 2017, the matter got worse. BCCI tried to clear the misunderstandings between the captain and me, but the captain was hell-bent on changing the coach and then the board had to bow down to the captain’s insistence.
Rohit-Gautam controversy
Before the Sydney Test, the ongoing tussle between the captain and the coach was not revealed to the public, but the coach’s appearance in the press conference just before the Test indicated that something dark was going on. Before the Sydney Test, Indian team captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Gautam Gambhir came face to face, but both did not consider it appropriate to talk to each other. During this, both the players ignored each other. On the basis of this it is being claimed that the atmosphere in the Indian dressing room is really bad. At the same time, before the Sydney Test, Gautam Gambhir was asked about the playing eleven of the Indian team. In response to this question, he/she said that we will decide about the playing 11 after seeing the pitch. And when Bumrah reached the pitch for the toss, it became clear that a big rift had formed in the dressing room which was not going to end now.
One thing becomes clear from these three incidents of Indian cricket that the stature of all three coaches was equal or bigger than that of the captain and this very thing later became the cause of controversy. Because when there is a fight for supremacy between two people of the same team, then everyone has to bear the loss, like the entire Team India has to bear at this time.
tag: Anil Kumble, Border Gavaskar Trophy, Gautam Gambhir, greg chappell, india vs australia, Rohit Sharma, saurav ganguly, Virat Kohli
first published : 3 January 2025, 08:39 IST
