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| September 29, 2005 | Thursday | Sha'aban 24, 1426 |
‘Ganguly and Chappell patch-up an eyewash’
MUMBAI, Sept 28: The truce brokered by India’s cricket chiefs between captain Saurav Ganguly and coach Greg Chappell was on Wednesday rubbished by the media amid fears another flare-up was around the corner.
Ganguly and Chappell, whose damaging rift was described by one newspaper as “the biggest controversy since the match-fixing scandal” agreed to patch-up before a high-powered panel of the BCCI on Tuesday.
But the media remained unsatisfied at the outcome and blamed the BCCI panel, which included former captains Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and Srinivas Venkataraghavan, as “spineless” for failing to take sterner action.
“Who are they kidding?” said an editorial in the Mumbai-based Daily News and Analysis.
“What makes this wishy-washy outcome even stranger is Chappell’s acquiescence to this travesty. After the open bitterness, life for the two of them will be difficult.”
Chappell, 56, a former Australian captain and batting great, took over as Indian coach in June for a two-year term extending until the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean.
Relations between Chappell and Ganguly soured on the recent Zimbabwe tour and culminated in the coach writing a confidential e-mail to the BCCI saying the captain was unfit to lead India.
Leading national broadsheet The Hindustan Times ridiculed the uneasy truce worked out by the BCCI.
“Saurav Ganguly stays. Greg Chappell stays,” it said. “And Indian cricket stays in the same mess into which it had got itself ever since the row between the captain and the coach exploded into the open and became the biggest controversy to threaten the game here since the match-fixing scandal.”
“Two very strong and egotistical men have lost face in the battle,” said the Times of India. “They will not rest in peace until the other is eventually beaten.
“It cannot be a fair fight anymore.”
Both Chappell and Ganguly were barred by the BCCI from speaking on the subject to the media. Less than 24 later, however, the media relied on “authoritative sources” to describe what transpired at Tuesday’s meeting.
The Telegraph from Ganguly’s home city of Kolkata reported that “the BCCI would have considered doing away with both if an understanding wasn’t reached.”
Added the Hindustan Times: “The coach told the captain that he wants to be the boss. Ganguly said that Chappell was playing the blame game and creating an environment of insecurity, panic and fear.”—AFP
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