NEW DELHI, Oct 31: After hinting that Sachin Tendulkar was a sore loser, former Australian vice-captain Adam Gilchrist has taken a swipe at the then skipper Saurav Ganguly and spinner Harbhajan Singh, suggesting that the duo had chickened out of their 2004 Nagpur Test fearing a defeat on grassy wicket.

“When I got to the middle, Ganguly was not there. Dravid was in his blazer, ready for the toss,” Gilchrist wrote in his autobiography ‘True Colours’. “’Where’s Saurav?, I said’. Rahul couldn’t answer definitively; between the lines I perceived that Saurav might have pulled out from fear of losing a home series,” said Gilchrist, who was then a stand-by skipper in place of an injured Ricky Ponting.

Gilchrist felt the hard green top in Nagpur could be the reason for off-spinner Harbhajan making himself unavailable for the match. “Harbhajan was out of Nagpur Test with a ‘flu’, which he seemed to have contracted when he saw the grassy wicket. I still don’t know to this day what was wrong with Ganguly and Harbhajan,” writes Gilchrist.

One of the most successful wicket-keepers ever, Gilchrist, who is also known for his sportsman spirit, mentioned that speculation was rife that the hard green top was a result of Ganguly’s quarrel with the head of local Vidarbha Cricket Association. “There was speculation that Saurav Ganguly was quarrelling with the head of cricket in Nagpur and a rumour that a spicy pitch might be prepared out of spite or revenge against the captain,” he adds.

—Agencies