Australian batting all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has spilled beans on his fallout with Indian legend Virender Sehwag during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 season when he was the captain of Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings).
In his book 'The Showman', Maxwell alleged that Sehwag forced his hand on selection of the playing XI, being the franchise’s Director of Cricket Operations.
Maxwell had a fantastic IPL 2014 season for the Punjab franchise, amassing 552 runs at a strike rate of 187.75 as the team made it to the final that year. He was handed the team’s captaincy for IPL 2017.
Under his leadership, KXIP lost seven of their 14 league matches to finish fifth in the eight-team points table.
"I was going to be captain, which Sehwag told me when we met during the Test series. We had played together, but now he had retired into what was described at the time as a "mentor" role. We discussed how the team would operate and I thought we were all on the same page," Maxwell wrote in his book, as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.
"How wrong I was. Our coach, J Arunkumar, was coming in for his first season, and it became clear to him that he was coach in name only, with Sehwag pulling the strings... Privately, though, I had coaches and players coming to me asking what on earth was going on, and I found it difficult to give them a straight answer," he added.
Maxwell further narrated that he wanted to bring the coaches into a WhatsApp group for decision-making, but Sehwag didn’t entertain the idea.
The 36-year-old also claimed that volunteered the do the press conference after the team was bowled out for a mere 73 in the last league game. However, Sehwag addressed the media and labelled Maxwell as a ‘big disappointment’. The captain was even removed from the main WhatsApp group of the team.
"Upon getting onto the team bus, I found I'd been deleted from the main WhatsApp group. What was going on here? By the time we reached the hotel my phone was blowing up, with Sehwag having unloaded on me as a "big disappointment", blaming me for not taking responsibility as captain, and all the rest. It was unpleasant, especially when I thought we had parted on good terms," Maxwell wrote.
"I texted him to say how much it hurt to read those comments and added that he had lost a fan in me for the way he had conducted himself. Sehwag's response was simple: "Don't need fan like you." We never spoke again. I knew my time was at an end and told the owners as much: if Sehwag was going to stick around, they were making a mistake and not to bother with me," he added.
Sehwag’s association with the Punjab franchise ended in 2018 while Maxwell parted ways before IPL 2021. Subsequently, RCB acquired him for a hefty sum of ₹14.25 crore during the auction.
