John Wright also favoured Ganguly's sacking

NEW DELHI: Sourav Ganguly may have lost his captaincy and a place in the Indian team after a bitter spat with current coach Greg Chappell but it now transpires that even the previous coach John Wright favoured his sacking.

 

Admitting a fall out with Ganguly towards the end of his stint with the Indian team, the former New Zealand skipper has said there times when the Bengal batsman might have also wanted a change of coach.

 

Wright has let out some sensational inside information regarding his much-speculated relationship with Ganguly and controversial selection decisions in his new book 'Indian Summers', released in his home country on Thursday.

 

"As much as I respect Sourav Ganguly and acknowledge his record as captain and contribution to cricket, I believe there were sound arguments for a change in leadership towards the end of my stint," Wright says in the book.

 

"There might well have been times when he favoured a change of coach. What really mattered that the two of us saw the bigger picture, worked as a partnership to provide leadership on and off the field and got results. In that last season though, the results dried up."

 

Wright also says that it was Ganguly who masterminded the appointment of Sunil Gavaskar as consultant for India's home series against Australia in 2004-05 without taking him into confidence.

 

"Two days before the first Test (in Bangalore, against Australia 2004), I was notified that the legendary Sunil Gavaskar would be joining us as a batting consultant," he writes.

 

"I couldn't work out how it had happened. Gavaskar solved the mystery by revealing in a team meeting that he had a text message from Ganguly. I was far from happy because as the head coach I should have had the final say on support staff issues," Wright writes.

 

"...if the captain decides to bring someone into the camp two days out from a Test against the best team in the world, there's not a hell of a lot you can do about it."

 

Wright also says he was frustrated during selection committee meetings which were nothing short of a farce.

 

"The first six or seven selections were straight forward. But when it got down to the marginal selections, those last three or four spots that determine the balance of the team and your ability to develop new players, the zonal factor kicked in and things would get interesting," he said.

 

"It was easy to tell when selectors had come to a meeting with an agenda... If their boys weren't picked, they tended to cross their arms, clam up and take no further part in the meeting," he writes.

 

Wright said VVS Laxman and Mohd Kaif bore the brunt of the selectors' whims.

 

"VVS Laxman and Kaif are examples of outstanding performers who always seemed to be only one or two failures away from having their places questioned."

 

In another context, Wright says Kaif had rubbed then England skipper Nasser Hussain the wrong way through his overzealous conduct during one of the matches.

 

"Kaif had managed to get under Hussain's skin... He clearly bugged Hussain when England were in India and during the game at Durham, he had a real go at Kaif telling him to shut up and calling him a bus driver."

 

Wright says there is still a reluctance in India to take tough decisions against the "superstars".

 

"The exceptions are the superstars. There's still reluctance to give an under performing or unfocussed big name a blunt message by having him sit out a tour or a few one-dayers."

 

Wright also defends his approach to the job, saying he was cautious never to put his opinion on team composition and players' performance in writing, fearing that his views might be leaked to the media.

 

He also denies that he was soft with the players.

 

"That was simply not the case. I had tried everything including banging my fists and being hard-nosed and whenever the president or selectors sought my opinion, they got it without any equivocation or sugar coating. One thing I chose not to do was argue my case in public."

 

Dalmiya refuses to comment on John Wright's book

 

Former BCCI President Jagmohan Dalmiya on Saturday refused to react to former Indian coach John Wright's controversial comments on the Indian team's selection process.

 

"I know you are asking me as I am an ex-BCCI president. But I'm contesting an election tomorrow. And this is not the platform to answer this," Dalmiya told newspersons at the Cricket Association of Bengal here.

 

The seasoned sports administrator would take on Kolkata police commissioner Prasun Mukherjee in the CAB presidential polls on Sunday.

 

Dalmiya, who has been occupying the post of CAB president uninterruptedly since 1992-93, evaded a query whether he was confident about his poll prospects.

 

"You tell me," Dalmiya said.

 

On whether this is the toughest election of his career, Dalmiya said "When I write a book, then you'll know."

 

Wright has said in his new book 'Indian Summers' that it was Ganguly who masterminded the appointment of Sunil Gavaskar as consultant for India's home series against Australia in 2004-05 without taking him into confidence.

 

Wright also said he was frustrated during selection committee meetings which were nothing short of a farce and claimed that VVS Laxman and Mohd Kaif bore the brunt of the selectors' whims.