Ganguly forgives 'failure' Chappell

New Delhi, Nov 15 (UNI) He has had more than his share of controversies during a roller coaster career but the spat with Greg Chappell still rankles Sourav Ganguly.

Speaking in an interview to 'Star News', Ganguly revealed that he helped Chappell while he was being selected as the coach of Team India. But he was absolutely surprised to see the way his relation with the Australian took a turn for the worse within the span of a week.

The Bengal southpaw suffered one of the worst phases of his illustrous career under Greg Chappell. He was forced to relinquish his captaincy and was subsequently dropped from the team.

However, Ganguly stated that he has ''forgiven'' the former coach but felt the Australian had failed to produce the desired results while he was at the helm of Team India.

''I thought Chappell would help Team India grow but that did not happen,'' Ganguly opined.

However, he refused to blame Chappell for India's disappointing performance at the World Cup in the West Indies last year. ''The contribution of a coach in a match is not more that 10-15 per cent, the players have to do the 90 per cent of the job,'' Ganguly asserted. ''Look at the present status of the team, ultimately it's the team that is performing and not the coaches.'' According to Ganguly, in Indian cricket, a performer is a 'hero' and anyone who fails to deliver is nothing less than a 'villain'.

He insisted that no Indian cricketer could be involved in the Chappell controversy, not even the members of the Board as all these people are much more concerned about the Team.

''The controversy might have been triggered by agents of the players or some journalists,'' he suggested.

The elegant left-hander was instrumental in bringing some much needed agression and confidence into the Indian dressing room and believes that the morale of the team definitely touches a high if it plays in an ''aggressive mood''. He revealed that he had an argument with the then coach John Wright at the Lords' stadium during a practice session before the finals of the NatWest Series. Next day he played his best cricket and the team finally won the match.

Later, Wright told him that the entire argument was aimed at driving him into that 'mood' to win the match.

One of the most memorable images of Ganguly is that shirt-waving incident at the Lords balcony after the triumph in the NatWest Trophy and it was but natural that it would crop up in the conversation at some point. But Ganguly felt embarrassed and started smiling as it was being discussed. He said the moment ''embarrasses'' him till date.

The charismatic batsman is weary after more than a decade of putting up with the rigours of international cricket and is determined to spend some quality time at home, now that he is retired.

''No matter what I take up in the future but one thing is for sure that I want to spend most of my time in Kolkata,'' said Ganguly.

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