India’s chief coach Ravi Shastri is known for being a fun loving person with a great sense of humor. However, he means business when it comes to punctuality and works ethics.
Recently, Shastri appeared in Gaurav Kapur’s popular web-show ‘Breakfast with Champions’ wherein he revealed how he once taught punctuality lessons to Sourav Ganguly during the tour of Bangladesh in 2007.
“I take pride in being punctual. It is a great quality. In our team, punctuality is paramount. The bus leaves at nine, it will leave at nine. Only once I had to take the bus early in Bangladesh in 2007. In Chittagong, we were supposed to leave at nine and it got to nine. I said, ‘let’s go’. The local managers and all said, ‘Dada nahi aaya’ (Dada hasn’t come yet). I said, ‘Dada ayega gadi mein. Chalo.’ (Dada will take the car. Let us leave),” Shastri quoted in the show.
“After that, whenever we left for practice sessions, Sourav was always 10 minutes before. Punctuality is very important in a team sport,” he further added.
The Ganguly-Shastri spat has been reported upon several occasions in the last two years and stemmed from the appointment of Anil Kumble as a head coach in 2016.
Shastri, whose term as a team director had come to an end after the ICC World T20 2016, was favorite to take up the head coach role. However, BCCI’s Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) comprised of Sachin Tendulkar, Ganguly, and VVS Laxman recommended Kumble to take the charge.
Shortly after, Shastri had blamed Ganguly for his ouster and termed his approach to the selection process as 'disrespectful'. It is worth mentioning here that Ganguly was absent during Shastri’s interview.
Ganguly then retaliated by saying, “If Ravi Shastri feels that Sourav Ganguly was responsible for him not being the India coach, he is living in a fool’s world.”
In 2017, Ganguly was again part of the committee that selected the coach for Team India after Kumble’s resignation. This time Shastri was appointed but it is learned that he had the backing of skipper Virat Kohli and another CAC member Sachin Tendulkar.
