Virender Sehwag reveals about Greg Chappell's controversial mail against Sourav Ganguly

Greg Chappell sent an email to the BCCI, criticising Sourav Ganguly as being "mentally and physically unfit" to lead India.

Chappell and Ganguly | Getty Images

Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag has revealed on Friday (20 April) an unknown deed about the infamous leaked e-mail that led the famous Greg Chappell-Sourav Ganguly controversy in the cricket world.  

It  all happened in 2005 when Australian great Chappell was named as the replacement for the incumbent coach John Wright, after he denied renewing his contract as Head coach of the Indian Cricket Team at the end of the 2004-05 season.

The big controversy occurred during Chappell's maiden overseas tour of Zimbabwe with India, when he was asked Ganguly to step down from the captaincy and focus on his batting, citing the captaincy affecting the "other areas of his game". But the main drama started before the first Test in Zimbabwe, when Chappell advised the Team Management that they should pick both Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif ahead of Ganguly, which irked the skipper and he decided to leave the tour.

Following the matter, the reports suggested that Ganguly had allegedly faked an injury during that match, and even made defiant comments to the media regarding the team management, saying they are trying to pressure him to resign as captain.

Later during the Zimbabwe tour, Chappell sent an email to the BCCI, criticizing Ganguly as being "mentally and physically unfit" to lead the team, and even suggested that his "negative attitude" would hamper their chances for the 2007 World Cup.

Now, Sehwag Sehwag shed light into matter, revealing he was the first who knew about the infamous e-mail against Ganguly. As per IANS, he revealed, “I 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 about it. I told him he is writing something to the BCCI and it's something serious.”

Meanwhile, Sehwag, who scored 105 in his Test debut against South Africa in 2001, also revealed that many people were opining that he is not able to play the longest format of the game, and he is very thankful to Ganguly who gave him chance to play Tests for India and proved himself with the red-ball.

On being asked to recall his most memorable moment as a cricketer, Sehwag replied his maiden ton in South Africa in Tests. He signed off by saying, “My first Test hundred. 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.”

 
 

By Rashmi Nanda - 21 Apr, 2018

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