NEW DELHI, March 2: India’s cricket coach Greg Chappell was taken to task on Thursday after reportedly telling a British newspaper that Saurav Ganguly had wanted to stay on as team captain for financial reasons.

Indian cricket board secretary Niranjan Shah said Chappell, the Australian batting great who took over as coach of India in June, had been asked to limit his public comments to the game.

Ganguly had complained to him about remarks attributed to Chappell in The Guardian, which quoted him saying he wanted Ganguly removed from the captaincy because the demands of the position were affecting his batting performance, Shah said.

“Ganguly was upset most by Chappell’s comments that he wanted to cling on to the India captaincy for financial reasons,” Shah said.

“We have written a letter to Chappell asking him to refrain from making such comments in future. He should restrict himself to talking about the players’ performance,” he said.

There was no immediate comment from Chappell on the cricket board’s missive.

In remarks published in the Guardian newspaper, Chappell was quoted as saying of Ganguly: “We clashed because his needs as a struggling player and captain and those of the team were different.

“It was in his own interest to give himself mind space to work on his batting so that it could be resurrected, but he was not prepared to do that.

“What I didn’t realise at that stage was how utterly important to his life and finances being captain was,” Chappell was quoted as saying.

Ganguly is India’s most successful Test captain with 21 wins.

After his clash with Chappell surfaced during India’s tour of Zimbabwe in September, he was sacked from the captaincy in October.

Chappell later wrote in an e-mail to Indian cricket chiefs that was subsequently leaked to the public that Ganguly was “unfit” to lead India and questioned his commitment to the team.

Shah said Ganguly’s future as an international cricketer had dimmed when he was left out of the side for the current first Test against England in Nagpur.

Chief selector Kiran More told reporters last week the 33-year-old former captain was unlikely to be selected again because of the selectors’ -– and Chappell’s — desire to promote younger talent.—AFP