Greg Chappell's stint with the Indian cricket team from 2005 to 2007 was a controversial one.
Manjrekar revealed that during India's tour of Zimbabwe in 2005, Laxman had walked off the field to receive some treatment on his finger and his substitute dropped a catch, leading to Chappell addressing the Indian batsman on this matter.
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"While a Test match was underway in Harare in Zimbabwe, Greg Chappell went for a practice session with a few substitute players. After 30-40 minutes, he was heading back to the dressing room. On the way, he saw a substitute fielder in the match dropping a catch in the slips. So the coach started wondering, why is there is a substitute on the field, and which regular has come out," Manjrekar told SportsKeeda in an exclusive chat on their show 'SK Tales'.
"When he went inside, Greg Chappell saw that VVS Laxman was drinking coffee. So he got a bit angry and asked VVS, why he wasn’t on the field. Laxman replied that he had got injured, so came out of the field to apply some ice on the injured area," he added.
"An enraged Greg Chappell rebuked Laxman and asked, was it life-threatening? Laxman was absolutely shocked thinking, what is he asking? The coach further ordered him that if it is not life-threatening, never come off the field next time. Substitution is something that normally happens a lot in Indian cricket, and other teams do it as well,” Manjrekar explained.
"However, Greg Chappell found it unacceptable. Of course, it didn't help that the substitute dropped a catch, and Greg Chappell ended up giving a senior player like Laxman a piece of his mind," he continued.
Greg Chappell's stint with the Indian cricket team from 2005 to 2007 was a controversial one. While his fallout with former captain Sourav Ganguly is quite famous, several ex-cricketers such as Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh and Laxman have also expressed reservations against his style of coaching.
It was a chaotic time in Indian cricket in which accusations flew from both sides and reached the all-time low when the country crashed out in the group stage of the 2007 World Cup — Chappell’s last tournament in charge.